Small plane just misses jet taking off from SFO

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(03-30) 15:18 PDT SAN FRANCISCO --

A small plane came within less than 300 feet of a commercial jetliner taking off from San Francisco International Airport over the weekend, federal officials said today.

A United Airlines Boeing 777 with 251 passengers on board, bound for Beijing, took off at 11:15 a.m. Saturday and had just been cleared to climb to 3,000 feet when the near-collision happened, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The jet was at 1,100 feet when an air traffic controller warned the crew to be on the lookout for a small plane, the safety board said. Immediately afterward, the jet's automated traffic collision avoidance system issued an audible alert of, "Traffic traffic."

That's when the pilot and first officer saw a light high-wing Aeronca 11AC making a hard left turn to the right of the airliner, the safety board said. The first officer promptly leveled off the jet, and both crew members watched as the Aeronca passed 200 to 300 feet over the airliner, the safety board said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/30/BACC1CNHPS.DTL

[virgogal]

1. God almighty.

[LuckyLib]

2. Yep. And commercial airline pilots are paid too much.

Do I need the :sarcasm: ?

[CherokeeDem]

4. Not hardly....

but someone definitely needs to buy that pilot a beer.

[kestrel91316]

3. Great. I'm probably gonna be flying in and out of SFO in july.

[left coaster]

5. Near misses can and do happen anywhere and everywhere..

Not just SFO..

[Alcibiades]

6. I wonder how old the pilot was

My dad's a private charter pilot. He mainly flies rich folks around the country in the King Airs his company operates. Dad will be 68 this year. He's flown since his days in the Nam, switching to fixed wing aircraft in the late 1970's. A couple of years ago, air traffic control had to remind him three times to change his altitude, which scared him, as he's never had to do that before.

There is no mandatory age for retirement of charter pilots.

[mainer]

7. Who the heck was piloting the small plane?

He may need to have his license yanked. Unless it was ATC's fault.

[damonm]

8. At the least,

He needs a talking-to. SFO is Class B airspace, and YOU DO NOT GO IN unless you have been specifically cleared to do so by ATC.
The idjit was likely trying to fly directly over SFO (common practice for small aircraft near major airports) and wandered off course.

[DemoTex]

9. I was born 62 years ago today; the Aeronca 11AC was born two years before me.

Aeronca 11AC "Chiefs"

[groundloop]

10. Nice photo. I've got a ton of hours in Aeronca Chiefs

It's unfortunate that near misses happen, thankfully nobody got hurt. For sure the FAA will get to the bottom of what happened, there's a good chance someone will lose their license.

[DemoTex]

11. I soloed in an Aeronca 7AC on my 16th birthday (46 years ago today!).

I soloed in the morning and got my driver's license in the afternoon. I have flown 11AC's too. Since then I have flown 17,000+ hours commercially, about 3000 hours military, and about 200 hours in gliders.

My guess is that unless the offending Aeronca Chief (wood and fabric) had a transponder, the small amount of metal (engine, control cables, etc) made "skin-paint" by modern radar impossible. Without a transponder, the airliner's TCAS would be of no use in collision avoidance with the Air-Knocker.

As an ALPA-trained airline accident investigator (with a good friend on the NTSB), I'll be very eager to see the details on this incident.

[hayu_lol]

12. Picture brought back some memories...

had quite a few hours in the 7AC Champion. Also many hours in the J-3 Cub, followed by many happier hours in the PA-18 Supercubs.

As you said, there will be some very unhappy and sweating people for the next few days.