Pantera

Home Video Captures Hudson River Midair Collision | NBC Dallas-Fort Worth

undflyboy06

RIP to the victims.

block30

Wow, that "expert" pretty much says every aircraft has TCAS. He may have flown in the Navy and is a "commercial" pilot, but apparently has no clue about GA operations. Dumb and an insult to the deceased.

Photon

Thought it was the news dude who said that it was "fairly common" while the "expert" said that it could have avoided the accident?
However, are there any small piston airplanes with TCAS? I know the G1000 has TIS, but not TCAS

BoredwLife

FAA: 2 employees investigated in mid-air collision - Yahoo! News

atpwannabe

I have watched the video a number of times and I'm still trying to figure out, like some of you,....given the flight path of each aircraft that, "How in God's name that they didn't see each other?"



atp

ZnCrO4

There are some small piston aircraft with a TCAS like system in the sense that it does not require ground based radar contact. To the best of my knowledge the G1000 is available with both TIS (requires ground based radar contact) and TAS (a system similar to TCAS I in the sense it requires only the onboard TAS unit and at least a transponder to receive a primary target or obviously mode C onboard the other aircraft for altitude information)

Having that said, did the either of the aircraft have such systems? I can not say. Should the pilots of these aircraft have been more vigilant in this corridor than normal? Depends on your definition of normal. Would I have seen the other aircraft soon enough to make a difference? I can not say. If I had you bet your bottom dollar I would have tried with everything I have to avoid hitting the other bird.

Bottom line is that it is unfair to assume that anyone could have for sure seen the other aircraft soon enough to make a difference.
just my two cents

RIP passengers and crew

UAL T38 Phlyer

They approached each other laterally, from my perspective. Most pilots (even fighter pilots) spend the majority of their scan looking forward of the 3-9 line.

But additionally, I can still hear the words of my Aerospace Physiology instructor at Williams AFB during the classroom lectures prior to flying the mighty Tweet:

"Which airplane is the one you are going to hit? The one that doesn't move."

I had never thought of it that way before.

In fighters (at least, the courses I went through), this stationary target was called "on the CATA" (Collision-Antenna Train Angle). It meant if you were locked on to a guy and the antenna angle didn't change, he was coming straight at you.

Lastly, the human eye reacts to two major physical characteristics: contrast, and relative motion. The video seems to show relatively little relative motion, especially in the peripheral vison area.

Missiles work the same way: no motion, it's coming for you. Makes it tough to see and react to.

Very, very unfortunate accident.

Bri85

Amazing a vid surface- It looks like the helicopter came up from the pipers blind spot, under the wing. I dont know if having a TCAS or ADS-B would have helped in that situation. The corridor is way too busy- last time I flew it about a year ago, the ADS-B was on red the whole time (airplanes climbing- descending and crossing w/in a 5nm radius)

Im not surprised 2 controllers were placed on leave from teterboro. Those guys have put me on sticky situations in the past.

forumname

Good point. Also, just throwing it out there and NOT trying to speculate. But there was an accident years ago where a B1900 and a King Air hit each other on take off when departing intersecting runways. Besides ALL the obvious human factors, one of them was probably just as you outlined above, especially on take off.

But something that was brought up in an article I read, with the angle the aircraft approached each other (the 1900/King Air), they may have been in each others blind spot directly behind the cockpit window post. Further decreasing the eye's ability to detect relative motion in an environment that is already task intensive.