This is such a sad event. I always cringe when flying over that practice area. I never have liked it. There is just too much traffic in too small of a space. It's just hard to see and avoid (if not impossible) with concentrated air traffic.
This is almost a year to the day from the last mid air collision over the same practice area.
It also looks like neither ELT went off and no one noticed two planes falling out of the sky.
RIP to all.
anything can be damaged enough to become inoperable. i dont think if i put a wrist watch in a hydraulic press it would survive. same goes for something catching fire, or falling a couple thousand feet, or being submerged in a swampy muck. tragic nonetheless, i flew in that area for my MEI and that was it. still hits pretty close to home being an ATP grad. anythings possible, and i don't want to imagine what it was like on the way down if they survived the initial impact. RIPAlso, why didn't the ELT's alert? Is it possible that an ELT can be damaged so bad that it becomes inoperable?
anything can be damaged enough to become inoperable. i dont think if i put a wrist watch in a hydraulic press it would survive. same goes for something catching fire, or falling a couple thousand feet, or being submerged in a swampy muck. tragic nonetheless, i flew in that area for my MEI and that was it. still hits pretty close to home being an ATP grad. anythings possible, and i don't want to imagine what it was like on the way down if they survived the initial impact. RIP
anything can be damaged enough to become inoperable. i dont think if i put a wrist watch in a hydraulic press it would survive. same goes for something catching fire, or falling a couple thousand feet, or being submerged in a swampy muck. tragic nonetheless, i flew in that area for my MEI and that was it. still hits pretty close to home being an ATP grad. anythings possible, and i don't want to imagine what it was like on the way down if they survived the initial impact. RIP
You should of seen him at Stuart before a Patriots gameI went to CFI school in Atlanta with Andrew. One of the nicest guy I know.
I will always remember him for being one of those gung-ho sports fan. He Loved his Patriots.
RIP brother-man.
This is a most tragic accident and it is something we all fear as CFI's. I am not familiar with the FLL area but it seems that the FAA needs to be better involved in providing some type of CTAF frequency and a dedicated radar controller to oversee and provide radar services for training aircraft in high density areas. If that was the case, then this accident and the one last year may not have happened.
Could someone who might be familiar with that area please answer the following questions?
1. Is there a CTAF type frequency that has been either formally or informally established for training aircraft that operate in that practice area?
2. Is it practical to use approach control or center radar for advisories when in that area?
3. Various new relatively inexpensive airborne collision avoidance systems are being used more and more in high density areas, why aren’t these systems being used in the small training aircraft?
i saw that video also, and i heard the ELT's, which did make me wonder why they weren't reported missing until the next day. but then i saw another news video of a woman saying she was 3 miles from the crash site, and said something that contradicted the original timeline... i forget what was said exactly.I watched a news video the morning after the accident, it was helicopter footage of the airboats coming to the scene. ELT's were screaming in the background audio of the whole video.
So I ask the question, how many of you monitor 121.5? I guess I should, but the only time I do is when approach cannot make contact with an aircraft.
Basically you are asking the FAA to take responsibility of anything that happens in the practice area, they do NOT want that responsibility, just as a controller wants absolutely nothing to do with you once your outside their sector. It is not because they are lazy or careless, it is because of the lawyers.JoeFriday2:
Thanks for your reply. I have heard from another source that the frequency used for CTAF in the practice area around FLL is 123.45. This is nice if everyone uses it. I would guess that this CTAF on 123.45 is not an official use for that frequency.
As far as using FLL approach control for radar services, I have heard that some of the schools and some individuals have asked the FAA to dedicate a special approach control frequency along with a dedicated controller to provide radar advisories. I heard that the result of the request was no action from the FAA. Do you or does anyone know if that did happen?
It is because of the lawyers.