Recently, a lot of incidents have been reported surrounding the airline industry. Much of it comes after the tragic crash and loss of lives at Reagan National Airport.
Now there is another story to report, and this one is a significant near miss. It occurred when a jet plane that was carrying 137 souls came very close to crashing into a military jet.
Now that the near miss has been reported, a transcript has been released that shows the reaction the pilot had to the military plane being so close to his air space. Interestingly, this also happened close to Reagan National Airport, only bringing back memories of the crash with the helicopter on January 29.
You would have to go the whole way back to 2001 to see a crash in the United States that was deadlier than that crash this year. All 67 people on board the plane and in the helicopter died as a result of it.
Ever since then, many accidents that have occurred ended up being newsworthy. The aviation industry is being watched more carefully than ever, and even though these incidents do occur regularly, they don’t often make the news.
The most recent was when a Delta Airlines plane that had taken off from Reagan on its way to Minnesota heard alarms going off in the cockpit. It was a proximity alert that had gone off because a military jet had flown far too close to the commercial airplane.
The audio transcripts allow a peek behind the scenes so that we can all see exactly what was said during such a terrifying incident. It was liveATC.net which captured the chatter.
The pilot first asked: “Was there an actual aircraft about 500 feet below us?”
The air traffic controller came back with: “Affirmative.”
The Delta plane had only taken off a few minutes prior to when the incident took place and was at speeds of excess of 350 miles an hour.
After the incident became public, the senator for Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar posted on Twitter, saying: “Unbelievably dangerous and thank God people are safe.
“My first call to Department of Defense tomorrow: why are your planes flying 500 feet below passenger jets full of Minnesotans headed from DCA to my state.”
The FAA also issued a statement: “The Delta aircraft received an onboard alert that another aircraft was nearby. Air traffic controllers issued corrective instructions to both aircraft.”
The National Transportation Safety Board says there have been 153 civil aviation accidents in the United States so far this year. 23 of those incidents involved a fatality.
