Seen on Reddit:
The only information so far is that it happened near Elstree and they were of course immensely lucky. Yes, those are tyre marks on the wingtip.
Been in Elstree several times. That airspace around London can be quite busy. It is a miracle that not more accidents have happened so far.
A Facebook posting I saw (with those photos of that tyre-marked PA28) said that the plane shown was in midair contact with another PA28. If the story is true then if there had been just six inches difference in the altitude of one of the planes then at least one of them would not have landed. Very scary.
Something I have seen at Elstree is a too-common occurrence : planes incorrectly doing an overhead join. Instead of joining overhead and then descending on the dead side, some pilots incorrectly think that if they are approaching the aerodrome from the dead side then they can simply descend as they approach, and call “descending dead side” without ever having been in the overhead. In effect, what they are doing is a crosswind join, and not doing an overhead join at all. One can imagine how this might bring planes close together unintentionally.
However, as with any overhead joining procedure, the most likely place for two planes to get close to each other is at the point where a plane joining crosswind approaches the downwind leg. I have seen planes get close at various aerodromes on a number of occasions at this crosswind/ downwind intersection. I also have a flying buddy who came to see me on the ground a few years ago rather white-faced and apologised for nearly hitting me as he joined crosswind (not at Elstree)….although I had not seen him or heard him call. Since then I have looked out more, but downwind legs can be busy, especially at new airfields and planes joining crosswind are not easy to see.
Circuits are dangerous places….
This sort of thing is one reason why, if I had a choice of going to Elstree and other places on a weekday or a weekend, I would pick the weekday every time.
That said, the last mid-air at Shoreham (DA40 v. RV) was caused by something else – departing traffic climbing way too fast and hitting crosswind traffic.
Nowadays I just wish everybody was Mode C or Mode S. Then I would see them. The biggest problem is the “civil liberties” crowd who insist in exercising their right to be invisible, flying planes which either have Mode C/S or could easily have. Even a passive traffic box would have warned these pilots that somebody was getting close, which is better than nothing.
I have no illusions about the “British Mk 1 Eyeball”. It doesn’t work, some 90% of traffic is never spotted, and even the Mk1 eyeball’s god appointed guardians – the RAF – have concluded that, having spent a vast amount of money (7 figures) installing a TAS600 (and a Sandel SN3500 EHSI for the display) in their Grob SEP training fleet.
You mean this Mk1?
(Imported variety)
Ah, the famous UK ‘overhead join’. Most idiotic way to approach an airfield. Ever.
Anyway, glad these chaps walked away and lived to tell the tale.
172driver wrote:
Ah, the famous UK ‘overhead join’. Most idiotic way to approach an airfield.
No worse than the French overhead join, I suppose…
Err where does it say, anywhere, that this collision happened at Elstree and/or as part of a overhead job? I like this forum because Peter tries to stick to facts.
As I understand it: One aircraft was approaching Elstree from the north, one aircraft was tracking east-west. The aircraft tracking east west was heading into sun, with relatively poor visibility, had two pilots on board, both looking out. They had called farnborough to get a traffic service, but were told to stand-by and were not called back, so were not in receipt of a service of any kind.
The chances are that Farnborough would have been of little use since so many people are non-transponding so you would not get any altitude info.
one aircraft was tracking east-west
Was that aircraft inside the ATZ but not departing or arriving?
