Mid-Air Collision

bob loblaw

bob loblaw

New Member
Ravenna, OH
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Verdana]Two Planes Collide, Crash in Field[/FONT]
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Two small airplanes collided Friday over northeast Ohio and crashed in a field, and federal investigators say they believe four or five people were killed.
One plane came to rest upside-down Friday afternoon in the field in nearby Rootstown Township and the other crashed a few hundred feet away, broken up near a rural road, the Ohio Highway Patrol said. The patrol planned to release more details at a news conference later Friday.
The FAA regional office in the Chicago area said in a recorded message that four or five people were believed killed. The agency identified the planes as a Cessna 172 L and a Lancair 235.
Jennette Himes, who lives down the street from the crash scene, said she heard a loud noise and thought something had fallen in her home.
"I heard a big pop. I thought something fell in the house and I went to see if anything had fallen. I looked around the house and I couldn't figure out what it was," she said. Her sister then called and told her there had been a plane crash.
The FAA said investigators from the agency and the National Transportation Safety Board were sent to the scene and the NTSB would lead the investigation. The NTSB office in Chicago said it had no information yet because an investigator still was on the way to the scene.


 
Very sad to see. My thoughts and prayers go out to the familys of those in the planes. This event has helped me decide to go out and buy one of those portable TCAS units they have. The thought of a mid-air collision scares the hell out of me.
 
I used to think that I would probably never see the airplane that collides with me in mid-air. I changed my thinking when I saw the last two near-misses in time to miss them. I can't imagine the terror that goes through a person's mind after such a collision. All I can hope for is that the collision either killed them instantly before they hit the ground, and they didn't see it coming. RIP

Incase anybody is wondering. My avatar is the F-117 Stealth Fighter that crashed at Martin State Airport in September, 1997. I happend to witness that crash and although I am glad noone was hurt, it was a once in a lifetime thing. Not many people can say they witnessed a Stealth Fighter crash.
 
I spent many hours teaching holds over that VOR, and doing approaches in that area. It gets pretty busy at times.

I haven't been able to find the tail # of the 172 involved yet, but I believe it is one of the last ones I instructed in.

RIP... :(
 
ESF its 7768G, hard to see the colors on the nose with what's visible in the pics. I flew it last week & flew with Alan, the CFI, yesterday.
Unbelievable....
Godspeed, everybody
 
Initially, if anything what can young learning GA pilots (and all pilots for that matter) get out of this to make us safer? Initially my thoughts are to ALWAYS LOOK LIKE HELL FOR TRAFFIC, TALK TO ATC and FLY AT UNUSUAL VFR ALTITUDES to avoid the chance of being at te same place same time...
 
There is a risk of collision anytime two or more aircraft share the same airspace. We as pilots can only do our absolute best to look out for other traffic, but since we are human, we tend to never see a large part of traffic around us at a given time. The best way to learn this is to fly in an airplane that is equipped with traffic avoidance and try to see as many airplanes that come even remotely close. There are near misses everyday that go unreported and often only one pilot saw the other aircraft and was able to manuever out of the way in time to avoid the collision.

Talking to ATC won't always guarantee traffic seperation. I was on a IFR flight plan in VMC talking to Center while in cruise at 8000' A PC-12 came from ahead and under me and climbed right infront of my nose missing me by maybe 200'. I asked Center why he didn't call me out as traffic and the controller said he isn't talking too him. When the PC-12 checked in, he reported the near-miss to the Center controller and the controller played it down by saying I saw him. I keyed up and said I saw him go by and had no time to move to avoid, seperation was pure luck.

Lastly, one of the best ways to help to avoid a collision is to ask passengers to assist you in looking for other aircraft. This makes the passenger feel part of the crew and gives you another set of eyes looking for traffic.
 
alphaone said:
Initially my thoughts are to .... FLY AT UNUSUAL VFR ALTITUDES to avoid the chance of being at te same place same time...
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I don't think I understand what you're saying here? :confused:
 
Don't fly at an incorrect VFR altitude. Me and Kellwolf almost got gigged around Abiline, TX becuase some jacka$$ in a Cessna 414 decided he was going to cruise along at 8,000 (our ASSIGNED altitude, we were IFR) instead of his assigned 7,500' altitude. Steve said he was wearing a white t-shirt and green David Clarks, and remember this was head on at 8,000'.

Be careful out there everybody
 
SteveC said:
I don't think I understand what you're saying here? :confused:
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If you are VFR and below 3500 AGL then fly at 1800 or 2200 instead of 1500 or 2000. I used to do this all the time when I was back in the Northeast. Almost everyone else will be flying at an altitude that is an even 500 feet. It gives you a little more separation and I think safety.
 
Bull. Who says your altimeter is that accurate? Keep your eyes outside the plane and keep looking for traffic.
 
alphaone said:
FLY AT UNUSUAL VFR ALTITUDES to avoid the chance of being at te same place same time...
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If you think about it, if you fly the right VFR altitudes, you'll have a LOWER chance of getting smacked by someone. If you're flying west at 6500 feet, and someone's flying east at 7500 feet, you'll miss each other by 1000 feet. And you'll have 500 feet separation from IFR traffic.

And no matter what, if you're flying in VMC, keep your eyes open and look outside the airplane!
 
Sadly, one of the pilots of the Lancair was the webmaster from the flightinfo forums. RIP.
 
NEFlyer said:
fly at 1800 or 2200 instead of 1500 or 2000. I used to do this all the time when I was back in the Northeast. Almost everyone else will be flying at an altitude that is an even 500 feet.
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I 100% agree with this statement. Most people fly at 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000 msl etc. etc. Not many people try to fly at 2250' for example. And to the poster than said your altimeter isn't that accurate, who cares? Safety isn't about doing ONE thing, it's about a combination of a lot of things that make the flight go safer.

And I never saw anything about him saying to not look outside less...

~wheelsup
 
tonyw said:
If you think about it, if you fly the right VFR altitudes, you'll have a LOWER chance of getting smacked by someone. If you're flying west at 6500 feet, and someone's flying east at 7500 feet, you'll miss each other by 1000 feet. And you'll have 500 feet separation from IFR traffic.
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He was referring to being below 3000' agl. Above it, yes, fly at the FAR altitudes. I don't think NEFlyer meant to do otherwise...

~wheelsup
 
I was flying with a friend of mine awhile back in a R44 (helicopter) at about 700 AGL and we had a very close call with a Cherokee that almost hit us from BELOW and we were 20 nm from the closest airport he flew right underneath of us...

another place you have to be very careful around as i learned in my whopping 75 hours of flying is you really need to pay attention when your are within the close vicinity of a VOR....high vfr traffic there at the lower altitudes!!

nothing will keep you safer than attention to detail and a good traffic scan...other than TCAS of course.


Safe flying all!

-Seth
 
EatSleepFly said:
That's the one... :(

Also, the webmaster of flightinfo.com, Mark, was one of the ones killed in the Lancair. RIP...
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FlightInfo can be an INCREDIBLE resource for working pilots. Especially in those post-CFI years. This is sad news, indeed.
 
really shocking events..i think mid-airs are probably on the top of a GA pilots' worst fears list! What makes this matter worse is that it strikes home in the fact that it was Mark, the creator of Flightinfo that was involved..both that board and this board are ones I check practically everday..truly saddening. What makes it worse are that all the folks involved were relatively young and had many young kids (in the case of the CFI, he had 2 young ones and his wife was pregnant). It was supposedly his last day as a CFI too as he got a part 135 gig :(
 
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