Having only ever flown as a crew of two, three or four I can’t imagine the amount of pressure there is on a single pilot flying PAX around like this. Multiple Quick flights, assuming 10-15 minutes duration in a high density traffic area, maybe you get used to a pattern of where you normally would look for other traffic?
Regardless of all the details that will be revealed during the investigation, it comes down to this: neither one of those pilots went to work that day expecting to get into a mid-air. I’m sure the pilot that was able to land is completely gutted.
What I’m taking out of this as aircrew is listen and look closer during those critical phases of flight and to be complacent or get sucked in a routine. It only takes a few seconds for something horrible to happen.
Our old Chief Pilot would always ask us on crew brief “in your opinion, what will the most dangerous point of our flight be today?” I always thought the emergency procedures part of standardization rides while in traffic patterns ranked pretty highly, if the airport we were using was busy, but departures and landings are pretty much always the most dangerous part of our flights because of the density of traffic in the area.
Condolences to all involved.
FltMech