Comments by "Stephen Villano" (@spvillano) on "WUSA9"
channel.
-
5
-
2
-
1
-
@lillianshaver24 so, that means that fixed wing aircraft cannot achieve a stabilized approach, since they cannot change direction due to the tracks they're riding upon.
Got ya.
Both can take evasive measures, it depends on time of warning and initiation of evasive actions and that's pre-established for which direction each aircraft turns to.
That said, the aircraft would have the maneuvering ability of an overfed cow, due to low altitude and speed, it being in a landing sequence. The helicopter would be in stable flight on its assigned course and slightly more nimble, but neither aircraft are fighter jets to begin with, so they're not going to be making any Top Gun kinds of maneuvers.
Worse, the radar shows that they first received a potential collision alert at around 1 mile distance, with a mutual closure speed of around 300 knots. That'd give them around 10 seconds to locate each other visually, as requested and queried by ATC, in the dark, in a congested environment with significant air traffic and light pollution. An environment where human depth perception is infamously poor to begin with.
Frankly, I'm more curious as to why the ATC automated systems didn't begin alerting after the fixed wing aircraft completed its last turn, as at that point, they were several miles apart.
Regardless, experience has shown that there are no single points of failure in accidents like this, but a slew of multiple factors that all line up to create the conditions of the accident. And that's most of what the NTSB is there for, to ascertain all of those factors, figure out what part they played and offer suggested measures to prevent such an event from ever occurring again.
Circling back to your comment, there is no fixed anything when a collision alert is sounded, the local flight computer takes priority over all, including ATC and standardized maneuvering is to occur once a potential collision is confirmed, as spurious alerts do occur often in congested environments.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1