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Old 7th July 2004 | 19:59
  #59 (permalink)  
Shaggy Sheep Driver
 
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 3,325
Likes: 2
From: UK
Wasn't Teneriffe a bang that happened under ATC control??

Maybe you mean not 747 / 747 ground collision, but the much earlier Dan Air 727 given a confusing and non-standard hold entry (IIRC) and flew into a mountain in cloud? Such things are exremely rare - unheard of in UK AFAIK.

It's irrelevant anyway. Radar vectoring with seperation of all GA is impractical unless we all become IR pilots with suitably equipped aeroplanes.

Technology won't make mid-airs impossible - until perhaps when the day dawns that we all fly 'hands off' behind autopilots that communicate with each other. No attraction in that for me, or many other aviators methinks.

But as Whirley says, the most important thing is that, although this is an awful tragedy - keep it in proportion. Aeroplanes are NOT regularly falling out of the sky due mid airs. Thankfully, it's a very rare occurence.

And, most important of all - keep those eyes and necks swivelling. The radar-protected airline pilot can afford to be 'eyes in'. We can't.

SSD
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