Let me add some context from the perspective of an airline pilot who is also is a company training captain.
All modern transport category aircraft are equipped with a system called TCAS, or Terminal Collision Avoidance System.
TCAS operates by interrogating the TCAS system of other aircraft in a defined proximity ring based on some variables like altitude and rate of closure and resolves a climb/descend/level command to each aircraft, which we pilots train regularly to execute. The system is a near perfect solution to deconfliction when collision is probable.
With daily average flights in the US alone around 45 000, the amount of “near misses” is an incredibly small percentage. In 15 years of flying TCAS equipped aircraft, I’ve had 5 actual TCAS RAs (RA stands for resolution advisory - the actual avoidance maneuver)
Another way to look at it is: when was the last mid-air collision in the US, or even the world involving TCAS equipped airliners? The only one that comes to mind is the DHL-BAL mid air in 2002, which was a result of the one crew not following the TCAS instruction.
This article can fuck right off.
For those that don’t speak plane, this is like saying every red light that tells you to stop and wait for someone is a near miss.
Pilot above is saying they got a red light 5 times in 15 years… hell, they got a give way 5 times when there was actually something there would be more accurate.
I see you don’t “speak plane” as well, because this is a terrible explanation
Obeying red light is like obeying air traffic. controller.
getting TCAS advisory is as if you had a system in your car that would tell you “you are too close to the car In front of you - slow down!”
Another way to look at it is: when was the last mid-air collision in the US, or even the world involving TCAS equipped airliners? The only one that comes to mind is the DHL-BAL mid air in 2002, which was a result of the one crew not following the TCAS instruction.
A significant part of the report focused on near collisions on runways.
TCAS doesn’t mitigate that, right?
There are other systems for runway collision avoidance. This video outlines both how they work and an actual runway incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj7nG6gJqsU
which was a result of the one crew not following the TCAS instruction.
That is serious misinterpretation. that crew followed their TCAS until they got conflicting instructions from the ATC…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Überlingen_mid-air_collision
I believe you are getting pedantic - when they got conflicting info they didn’t follow the TCAS. Point remains, they didn’t follow the TCAS.
no i am not and no, the point definitely does not remain.
first, phrasing it like “they didn’t follow TCAS” make them sound like some reckless cowboys, which is simply not the case. they did exactly what they were told by tcas and when they got contradicting order from ATC the did exactly what they were told by him.
second, the statatement “was a result of the one crew not following the TCAS instruction” is simply not true. the accident was a result of ATC (as in the organization, not the specific people having the shift that night) fucked up". reading that linked wiki article may be good place to start to learn about the accident.
Had both aircraft followed those automated instructions, the collision would not have occurred.
That is right from the wiki.
I never claimed the pilots were “cowboys”, you made that up in your head. I simply said the accident was a result of not following TCAS, which at its core is correct. Of course there are multiple contributing factors, ATC being the largest, but my post was already getting long winded.
and had all the pilots overslept that day the incident might not have happen as well and in spite of that, we don’t list them getting out of the bed in the morning as a reason of the accident.
them obeying the atc command was reasonable and expected course of action.
them obeying the atc command was reasonable and expected course of action.
That’s incorrect, and is exactly why we train to ignore ATC commands and follow TCAS advisories. We don’t even tell ATC if we’re climbing or descending, simply “Aircraft XYZ, TCAS RA”
And guess since when it is done that way…
Looks like the TCAS system has been doing a fine job, which it was designed to do.
For those who don’t know, there is a system onboard every modern airliner that has one job: detect planes at (roughly) same altitude, heading towards each other. It then very clearly tells one plane to pull up while telling the other to dive.
Pilots are instructed to follow TCAS above anything else they might hear from controller or captain.
TCAS is why we have nearly no mid air collisions, especially considering the amount of planes sharing the same crowded space near airports.
We need Mentour Pilot or 74 Gear to make a video tearing apart all the fear mongering in this article (not saying it’s totally invalid, but it’s massively overblown). But basically, a “near miss” in commercial aviation is “this plane momentarily transgressed the very generous mandated safety distances and triggered a resolution advisory in the cockpit of both aircraft which was complied with immediately.” It is by no means equivalent to a “near colission” like they imply. The worst part of the ordeal was probably the reports the pilots and ATC had to file afterward.
Immediately from the headline my first reaction was “well, the rate of actual collisions is near 0”, so either they’re very good at dodging each other, or what they deem as a “near collision” is actually quite a wide berth.
But then, this is the journalistic integrity we’ve come to expect from gizmodo.
for the smartasses who once heard about tcas, so everything is, obviously, made up bullshit.
from the nyt article that gizmodo refers to:
“I saw the nose of the jet with his lights illuminated at a close range. It looked like a cover photo from Flying Magazine,” a commercial airline pilot wrote in March, after coming within 200 feet of crashing into another aircraft in the skies around Jacksonville, Fla. “This conflict was too close to risk any single life we had on board, much less the 198 souls traveling collectively on us.”
In another report this year, a pilot narrated nearly colliding with two separate passenger planes after landing in Tampa on a foggy morning.
“I noticed a dark silhouette of an aircraft that appeared to be moving directly at us. It was extremely difficult to see, but I yelled ‘STOP’ to the captain, ‘The aircraft is going to hit us,’” the pilot wrote. “The other aircraft never slowed down, and if we would have noticed it a second later we would have collided. There was a second aircraft following the first, and it did not slow down either, and it passed our wingtips within ft.”
Just after 5 p.m. on Aug. 7, a controller at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport cleared American Flight 1388 for takeoff to New York. The controller instructed it to turn right after departing the airport, but the American pilot incorrectly repeated the directions back to the controller, according to F.A.A. safety reports. The controller didn’t catch the mistake.
After the plane took off, it banked left instead of right, directly into the path of a Southwest flight en route to Austin.
A different air traffic controller realized the planes were on a collision course. He radioed in urgent tones to the American pilot that the other flight was just to its left — “a Boeing 737 sitting right there.”
The two planes came within a third of a mile horizontally and 300 feet vertically of each other before pulling apart.
A midair catastrophe had been averted by seconds.
I experienced what they’re talking about. Plane was coming in to land. Suddenly the engines revved to the max and we tilted up. We flew right past the airport. The captain came in the com and said “Ladies and gentlemen you may have noticed we did not land. A Delta flight was on the runway where it should not have been. At delta they’re still learning to fly, and it shows!”
You could tell from his voice that he was pissed. To be fair I doubt he knew for sure it was pilot error instead of controller error. But anyway.
These people don’t know how TCAS works lol
No mention of the TCAS? Education time.
The ICAO requires all passenger aircraft to be equipped with TCAS - Traffic Collision Avoidance System. It is a last line of defense to avoid collision. When two TCAS-equipped airplanes are on a collision course, the TCAS modules will contact each other and negotiate, then issue corrective actions to their respective pilots - one to ascend, and the other to descend. Responding to a TCAS command is mandatory and overrules ATC instructions.
TCAS is the last resort. If that’s being activated, it means Air Traffic Control screwed up. The NYT reporting talked about how ATC is making more and more mistakes due to staffing issues.
I didn’t want to know that.
It’s not actually true, so don’t worry.
Edit. If you’re going to reply with an “actually” comment, don’t. Just go back to Reddit.
It is actually true though. Just the FAA’s definition of “near collision” is much much looser than what a lay person would think.
Ok
I mean it is true, it’s just “near collisions” has a broad definition in terms of air safety. Things that are very low risk or potential problems that were simply resolved before they grew are still recorded.
“Anyone who points out that I’m wrong needs to leave this place.”
Such fragility. Yikes.
No. The top comments already explain why the article is wrong.
He is just worried that HIS “actually” wouldn’t stand out as nicely if someone added second one…
Lol you’re the only one that noticed that. Kudos
The article is clickbait. The margins of range for “near miss” is enormous to ensure such things don’t happen. A “near miss” is usually still miles and miles apart, and only registers because two flights may be at the same altitude to avoid weather.
And just to think, some people actually think flying cars are a good idea… 🤦♂️
