Posted on 08/21/2023 11:30:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The New York Times took a deep dive into FAA data on near-misses between planes. So, as it turns out, airplanes are nearly crashing mid-air far more regularly than anyone initially thought. After a slew of almost-crashes over the past few months, The New York Times decided to take a deep dive into the issue. In fact, there have been at least 46 close calls involving commercial airlines in the last month alone. These incidents have reportedly been highlighted in preliminary FAA safety reports, but they haven’t been publicly disclosed.
The outlet says that while there haven’t been any major U.S. plane crashes in over a decade, potentially dangerous incidents occur far more frequently than anyone has realized. Industry insiders say it’s a sign that the safety net is under “mounting stress.”
The Times says that so far this year, close calls involving commercial airlines have been happening — on average — multiple times per week, according to the outlet’s analysis of internal FAA records and thousands of pages of federal safety reports and interviews with over 50 current and former pilots, air traffic controllers and federal officials. For the most part, these incidents are reported happening near or at airports, and they are the result of human error. A big factor has been mistakes made by air traffic controllers, which are exacerbated by a nationwide shortage.
From The New York Times:
In addition to the F.A.A. records, The Times analyzed a database maintained by NASA that contains confidential safety reports filed by pilots, air traffic controllers and others in aviation. The analysis identified a similar phenomenon: In the most recent 12-month period for which data was available, there were about 300 accounts of near collisions involving commercial airlines.
The number of such near misses in the NASA database — which is based on voluntary submissions that are not independently corroborated — has more than doubled over the past decade, though it is unclear whether that reflects worsening safety conditions or simply increased reporting.
Aviation authorities have said that the U.S. air travel system — responsible for nearly three million passengers per day — is the safest in the world. However, current and former air traffic controllers have said in interviews that close calls were happening so often that they feared it was only a matter of time until some sort of catastrophic crash happened.
“Honestly, this stuff scares the crap out of me,” a longtime airline captain, who previously was a carrier fighter pilot, reported to NASA in November. An air traffic controller had cleared the pilot’s flight to land on what looked like “a collision course” with another passenger plane. (NASA redacts entries’ identifying details, such as the airlines and pilots’ names.)
“This has really opened my eyes to how the next aviation accident may play out,” another pilot wrote to NASA after a close call on a runway in January.
“Is it going to take people dying for something to move forward?” a controller wrote the same month after barely preventing a midair collision.
NYT says that the U.S. aviation network has long been safeguarded by an extensive network over overlapping technological and human safety nets. It’s commonly called the Swiss cheese model. Basically, if a problem slips through one hole in a layer, it will be caught by another.
Anyway, there is a lot more to this story than what I’ve laid out here. Be sure to head over to The New York Times for an even deeper dive into what’s causing these issues.
This is nothing new. Some years ago I was at the airport doing some cleaning and stuff on our aircraft. I saw a 727 arriving on short final. Just over the numbers it went to full power and executed a go around with a sharp turn across mid field. I flipped on the radio and it turns out that the landing 727 had been cleared to land while at the same time another 727 was cleared to take off on the same runway in the opposite direction. Quick thinking and evaluation of the situation by the pilot of the landing aircraft. Controller was out to lunch. Highly competent pilot saved the day.
Wouldn't it have been nice if the New York Times had taken a "deep dive" into the 2020 election fraud instead of ignoring it and saying there's no evidence?
I was on a plane once that came within about 100’, I’d guess of a mid-air collision. The other plane went directly below us.
1000’ separation. They are supposed to be competent. And they are all supposed to speak fluent English. AND they all have the latest Maderna clot shot booster.
Naw, Probably 1000 feet. Look up RVSM.
No. Much closer. 1000 feet is 333 yards. This was maybe 30-35 yards.
Plus, as we were descending into Atlanta on a very dark and rainy night, the pilot all of sudden pushed the throttles forward and we accelerated and climbed like a takeoff climb. I thought, WTF and looked straight down and just caught a glimpse. That’s when I saw the other plane go directly beneath us about 30 yards below. It was very dark; I don’t know if the pilots actually saw it. Probably Air Traffic Control told them to climb ASAP, which they did! I’ve flown enough to know it’s not normal to suddenly climb like that when we were gliding in towards a landing. As I left the plane I would’ve said something to the pilots, but they stayed in the cockpit with the doors closed. This was way before 911 and usually they’d open the doors as the passengers departed with a “Thanks for flying with us tonight” and a big smile, etc.
Ya, that’s close. If there was an incident report, it’s in a database and can be accessed if you care to look it up online.
It used to be 1000 feet in the Z direction and 3 miles in the XY. Then I heard they dumbed down the Air Traffic Controller exam.
(I did pass years ago not with flying colors and not hired).
Cusack made a western movie.
The highlight for me was his character getting hanged at the end of the movie.
I don’t remember the name but I’ll watch it again just to see him hang.
Hahahaha! If there was ever a reason to re-watch a movie, seeing the character played by Cusack get it in the end would be worthwhile!
It’s God’s world, I’m just allowed to live in it.
The plane went DIRECTLY underneath us, and it was very, very dark and rainy. If we had collided, the nose of that plane would have hit us in the wing area. I doubt that the pilots ever actually saw it, since it was behind their positions. I don’t know the date to look it up, and they might not have reported it. I don’t know.
Probably the Air Traffic Controller was sweating it out though and saw the two blips merge together and let out a big sigh of relief after they crossed, and he got transponder returns from both planes.
The other plane didn’t appear to be another airliner. It was a good size twin engine propeller plane; I’d guess about the size of an old DC-3. In that split second, I got the impression that it was some sort of cargo plane. It might not have even had a transponder.
46 near misses out of 1.3 million flights handled by the FAA in that month... Yeah I’m not all that worried.
1000 feet in the Z direction and 3 miles in the XY
bttt
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