PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Mid-air collision involving Piper PA-44-180 Seminole, VH-JQF, and Beech D95A Travel A
Old 31st Mar 2022, 10:40
  #32 (permalink)  
Capn Bloggs
 
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Originally Posted by Tossbag
Would not have happened in Class E. That piece of airspace is extremely busy at times, why? Where's the closest VOR that training can be done apart from MNG? The sectorisation there is extremely challenging for the ATC.
Oh come on Tossbag. Extremely busy is it? You're dreaming if you think Class E ie full-blown controlled airspace for IFR (regardless of the weather) will "work". There were two near-misses recently at Mangalore, according to the report; essentially dogfights in the holding pattern. If you think Class E would solve that you're dreaming. All that would do is make Mangalore one-in, one-out. And, of course, as per the other thread, Class E would not stop a VFR running into an IFR (and good luck, LB, forcing every VFR in the country to fit a transponder so E airspace will work).

Originally Posted by Tossbag
The sectorisation there is extremely challenging for the ATC
Precisely the reason that JQF didn't get traffic on AEM. AEM had been airborne, heading for Mangalore, for 27 minutes before being passed to JQF. JQF should have got traffic on AEM on taxi. Not good enough. Getting late-notice traffic (6 miles, 12 o'clock!) in a full radar/ADS-B environment is not good enough. Do you have any idea what workload the pilots are under just after takeoff (and approaching the airfield when doing an instrument approach?).

And the elephant in the room is the CTAF. Monitoring/calling on the CTAF while all this jibber is going on simultaneously on the ATC freq is a recipe for a disaster.

In this context, I think the SFIS would work well. It removes the fundamental, deadly flaw of the new-age airspace rationale: having to operate on two freqs simultaneously. A bit like a supercharged CAGRO with legal position info: providing info when required but otherwise letting the pilots sort it out and get on with it. I have always said you simply cannot run two, concurrent airspace systems together (ATC+E and CTAF+others) without pilot workload going through the roof.

The report also said multiple pilots heard the broadcasts from AEM and JQF on the CTAF. Just how busy was the CTAF? These were experienced pilots (albeit training students). How is it that multiple broadcasts and at least one traffic statement from ATC to each (meaning both aircraft should have heard it) were all missed? Comms overload. Would that have happened if FS had been in place, such as at Port Hedland? No (or the chance would have been very very much reduced).

And the first STCA occurred 1min 38sec before the collision. I've had a traffic alert from ATC when I've already switched to the CTAF. In this case, ATC was still talking to the aircraft, with no "changing to the CTAF" call yet made. You wouldn't let a person walk out into an incoming car if you could stop them, even though it's not your responsibility...
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