Comments by "Scott Franco" (@scottfranco1962) on "1957 Pacoima California Mid-Air Collision" video.

  1. After the grand canyon crash (two airliners) the USA moved towards dramatically increasing radar coverage for the USA. However, this system is primarily designed for commercial aircraft, not light private aircraft, since it prefers high altitude aircraft and lower aircraft can be obscured from radar by mountains. The separation of military aircraft mentioned does not impact commercial aircraft much, since as you mentioned they are on IFR flight plans and in contact with controllers always. There also have been incidents, like the one in this video, where military aircraft have collided with civilian aircraft because they are capable "stealth mode" and avoiding detection by radar. The Florida crash comes to mind. This is basically an inter-agency issue. The military does not always feel the need to inform the FAA of its operations. ADS-B mode is supposed to solve many of the issues. It Broadcasts GPS position from each aircraft and can be used by receiving aircraft to construct a "virtual radar" picture of aircraft around it. It is required in high traffic areas after 2020. The FAA has actually proposed turning off high maintenance radar facilities after ADS-B becomes common.
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