Shannon Mid - air collision - airspace concerns

[Bruce]

Hi guys, I have just been thinking about the terrible fatal mid-air collision near Shannon (Manawatu) earlier this week. In case you are from overseas or havent caught up with this, 2 Piper Warriors from Massey Aviation at Palmerston North collided kiiling the solo student pilots in each aircraft. It appears they hit at almost 90 deg to one another, which is about the worst angle as when closing on one another there is virtually no aparent relative movement to attract attention.
Turns out that one of them had a near miss only a few minutes before with the local rescue helicopter (which ironically was called up to go back and attend the crash site). Also operating over the paddock next to one crash site was an Air Tractor carrying out crop spraying.
The aircraft were outside a control area and operating VFR, therefore "see and avoid" applies.
My thought is this - this area is obviously very congested, is it really wise to relocate more Military aircraft to Ohakea when it seems as though the airspace is already full?
in this immediate vicinity are the airfields of Ohakea, Palmerston North, Fielding, Foxpine and Kairanga. There is intensive military training from Ohakea, The huge Massey operation at Palmerston North, several Ag operators, The Palmerston North Hospital and Linton Camp Helipads and Microlights from Foxpine. Intinerant aircraft also track through the area avoiding Ohakea's military airspace.
The Massey aircraft in the accident each knew the other was in the area but in the busy airspace lost track of one another. The aircraft are white and vivid blue, so stand out O.K. I Would hate to have camouflaged Herks and stuff crossing through here while I was training.
Should the Herks be painted Yellow to match the CT4s?

[Dave Homewood]

Well, it may seem like a congested airspace as far as NZ conditions go but think about it compared with other parts of the world, Heathrow, LA, etc. It's not that bad really. The same problems could apply to Auckland or Christchurch too I guess.

I was quite concerned to see the ag pilot state on the news he saw the collision 100m in front of his aircraft! And then hearing of the earlier air miss that was called in, I seriously wonder if the airspace shouldn't be better controlled by ATC.

Would the students have been briefed that a topdresser was operating in their space, or a rescue chopper? Both could easily have also become part of the tragedy.

Who controls that general area, is it Palmerston North or Ohakea ATC?

[Bruce]

Noone does, it is outside the control zone. This is normal practice for enroute areas. Visual flight rules operates under the principle of see and avoid, and it is the Pilots responsibility to ensure separation from other traffic. Controlled airspace would not have prevented this accident as a control tower or radar operator can not positively identify and separate aircraft that far from an airfield at that low altitude.
The rescue Helicopter was passing by enroute, so could not have been include in the pilots briefings, nor do ag operators advise where they are working. Its that see and avoid princple again. It is worth noting that LA has a different mix of aircraft and the airspace is set up quite differently with VFR transit lanes carrying the itinerant VFR traffic away from other uses, and avoiding control zones, which in the Manawatu tend to make everyone fly in the same places.

[phil]

bruce said:

I Would hate to have camouflaged Herks and stuff crossing through here while I was training.
Should the Herks be painted Yellow to match the CT4s?

I've been through the ranges at Shannon on a tac flight in a Herc, and it is a sobering thought. However I'm not sure what the yanks would say if we turned up at Bagram in a bright yellow herc....

It would look cool at airshows though.

[Dave Homewood]

One news reported that 17 people have died in air-to air collisions in NZ in that past 18 years.

Does this seem unusually high to you guys? Or normal compared with other nations? It did include a small airliner that crashed down south, and I guess the Skyhawk collision too.

[Bruce]

I guess in the overall picture the number of air to air fatalities quoted isnt too bad, as the actual number of incidents is quite small, by my reckoning:

2x piper Tomahawks Palmerston north - 3 killed
2x Cessna 207s Milford Sound - 7 killed (?)
2x Skyhawks Ohakea - 1 killed
2x Harvards, Ardmore - 1 killed
Piper Cherokee and Squirrel Helicopter, Central Auckland (Cant remember number of fatalities)
2x Piper Cherokee Shannon. 2 killed

Considering that two of these incidents were during formation aerobatics, the general record isnt bad. However there are still "black spots where large numbers of near misses have occurred - Manawatu and Wellington are the main ones. I see an awful lot of collisions in the USA reported in AVWEB, including a lot involving fast military jets and civil light aircraft, but it is hard to interpret this in relation to amount of traffic and the nature of their operations.

[Dave Homewood]

They quoted 7 killed in one at Queenstown from memory, some sort of small airliner hitting a chopepr I think. Wasn't it a chopper working on a dam in 2000?

[Bruce]

The 2000 chopper crash you're thinking of was a wirestrike at the Manapouri powerstation, which wasnt an air to air collision. The Light airliner accident was the Milford crash between Cessna 207s, one of which made a safe landing, but the other crashed, killing all 7 on board. that is the worst of this sort of accident in NZ, although possibly two hudsons(?) missing without trace during WW2 also collided (but not proven). The helicopter accident would have been the very high profile Auckland City accident - cant remember how many were killed then but 5 rings a bell. (Maybe the stats didnt include the Harvard or Skyhawk incidents)

[Dave Homewood]

Or maybe, being TV news, the stats were wrong of course.

You're right, i was thinking of the Manapouri chopper crash.

When and where was the chopper/aircraft crash in Auckland? I don't recall that.

Another well publicised mid-air collision from the war was the C-47 and Ventura crash, where the wing of the C-47 was cut in half, but the pilot managed to get it down. Amazingly the Ventura pilot held his aircraft aloft long enough to get his crew out before he crashed, perishing with the plane. Quite amazing there were not more fatalities in that crash.

[Bruce]

I think the Auckland city crash was about 1991, the eagle police Helicopter hit the Cherokee that was doing traffic reports over the motorway. both aircraft crashed onto the "spaghetti Junction" interchange near Symonds St / Grafton Gulley - right at rush hour. Amazing that no-one on the ground was killed actually. I recall seeing the accident report, but I cant find it on the TAIC web page. I did howver find that there was inded a mid air collision over Fox Glacier in 1993 between a Skiplane and a Helicopter, 1 Fatality. That doesnt ring bells with me, but you were right Dave.

[corsair67]

The Dakota/Ventura collision is a great example of what you can do if you're fully in touch with what the particular aircraft you're flying can and can't do.

That incident is covered in some depth in Alex Horn's excellent book "Wings Over The Pacific". Apparently Flt Lt Laurie Bade spent a lot of time during the long flights between NZ and the Solomons reading the flight manuals from cover to cover and experimenting with different power settings, etc so he knew what you could and couldn't do with a Dakota. This obviously came in very handy when the Ventura sheared off a huge chunk off one wing.

[Dave Homewood]

An interesting thing is after Alex Horn's book was published he apparently felt he'd done an injustice to the Ventura crew by not covering their side of the story in his book. So he wrote a very good article from their view and it was published in NZ Wings about 1993ish. Nice to see authors doing this sort of thing.

I vaguely recall that Eagle crash now, thanks Bruce.