Near Miss Midair Disaster Due to Controller Error Narrowly Avoided By Lisa Stark

W A S H I N G T O N, May 12  A USAirways passenger plane and a Northwest cargo jet narrowly avoided a midair disaster early this morning when a controller error directed them onto a collision course over Nebraska.

The USAirways 757, a red-eye flight traveling east from San Francisco to Pittsburgh, was carrying 149 passengers. The Northwest jet, a cargo plane, was heading west, from New Yorks JFK Airport to San Francisco. At 2:30 a.m., both planes were flying at 39,0000 feet, heading straight for each other.

They were within moments of colliding when alarms were sounded by the planes onboard collision avoidance systems. An internal Federal Aviation Administration memo says the Northwest pilot then called the controller at Denver Center and asked about traffic ahead. The controller hesitated, then recognized the situation. The planes were about six miles apart, just 22 seconds from a collision. By then, the pilots  reacting to their onboard alerts  started evasive actions.

A Wake-Up Call This incident points out just how critical collision avoidance systems can be. Required on major airliners since 1993, they are not required on cargo planes. That means hundreds of large jets crisscrossing the country without this safety equipment. Northwest is one of the few carriers that has voluntarily added the system to its cargo planes. Some say this incident is a wake-up call.

ABCNEWS aviation analyst John Nance said: Safety in the airline business is measured by margin. Having cargo airlines out there by the hundreds without collision avoidance systems reduces the margin of safety. And in my mind it reduces them unnecessarily and unacceptably.

Congress recently directed the FAA to require collision avoidance systems on cargo planes, but the regulatory process will take years.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/travel/DailyNews/NearAirCollision000512.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 13, 2000