By Julie Johnsson | A United Airlines Boeing 777 jet bound for Beijing narrowly avoided a mid-air collision with a small plane as it took off from San Francisco International Airport, Saturday morning, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Federal investigators are headed to San Francisco where they will review radar data, air traffic control tapes and the flight paths of the two planes to try and determine what caused the aircraft to pass within 300 feet of each other, said NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson.
United Flight 889, carrying 251 passengers and 17 crew members, took from San Francisco on runway 28L at 11:15 a.m. and was climbing to an initial altitude of 3,000 feet when the incident occurred.
The heavily-laden aircraft was set on a westerly course over San Bruno Mountain, which would have left its pilots with little leeway to maneuver to avoid a collision, said another pilot who has taken that route but who hadn’t been briefed on the incident.
As the Boeing’s landing gear was retracted at an altitude of about 1,100 feet, an air traffic controller warned the United pilots that there was another plane at their “1 o’clock position,” according to the NTSB. Simultaneously, the airplane’s traffic collision avoidance system issued an audible alert: “Traffic, traffic.”
The United pilots said they saw a small high-wing airplane, an Aeronca 11AC, making a hard left turn from the 1 o’clock to 3 o’clock position to the front and right of their cockpit, according to the NTSB.
The United first officer, who was flying the 777, pushed the control column forward to level the airplane. Both crew members said they saw the underside of the Aeronca, as it passed overhead, coming within 200 to 300 feet of their jet.
The Boeing’s plane’s automated collision avoidance system then instructed the pilots to “adjust vertical speed” and then “descend, descend.” The first officer followed those instructions and the flight continued to Beijing without further incident, the NTSB said.
“We’re fully cooperating with the investigation,” said Robin Urbanski, spokeswoman for Chicago-based United.
OH MY GOD!! How could this happen?????
One more reason to never fly again…
Dana Andrews was at the controls of the small plane.
as bad as this is, the good news is that the last-resort systems to avoid this worked, and ultimately the collision was avoided. Thank goodness for the engineering and pilots involved.
Dispite incidents like this, commercial flying is still the safest way to go. The system worked like it was designed to do. Having taken off from San Francisco many times, you have to wonder what the light plane was doing in the area at that altitude.
A VERy CLOSE CALL!!!!!
But still much, much safer than driving on any Chicago area highway!!
Kudos to the United pilots and the air traffic controller. I’m glad nobody got hurt. That’s an extremely crowded piece of airspace. I think I’d ground the pilot of the smaller craft simply for not displaying better judgment!
One more reason to never fly again…
I mean really??? Clearly this is a really serious incident that will be investigated but it no way does it indicate flying is any less safe than it was before.
Kudos to the pilots and technology for avoiding what would’ve been a disaster.
well, at least Dana Andrews didn’t eat the fish…
I know the fish has more brain materal than jason and GeneTierney combined.
“One more reason to never fly again…”
I see this as all the more reason to fly again. The emergency systems in place did their job, and did them correctly, and the pilots were trained how to avoid a collision from taking place. I’d still like to know how the other plane got in the way of the 777 to begin with, but it sounds like everything else happened exactly as it should have.
JTO — hey dumb dumb, why do you think the light aircraft pilot should be grounded? He had clearance into the class-B airspace and ATC should have been providing positive separation between him and any other aircraft in the area, big or small. Kudos to the air traffic controller???? He screwed up on this one. From the looks of it both aircraft spotted each other last minute. Kudos to the pilots of BOTH aircraft.
Hey Cartman, I mean Steakman. Where in the article does it state that the pilot had clearance? What I DID read was that the ATC issued a warning that allowed the pilots in the 777 identify the threat before the collision-avoidance system did. Westbound heavies fly over that mountain every few minutes. It’s an extremely heavily-used corridor, so as a pilot, I think I’d exercise quite a bit of caution when flying into the area. However, IF an ATC specifically cleared the pilot to enter a Class B Airspace without relaying that information to the ATC responsible for routing the UA heavy, then yes, the first controller should get canned.
Whatever! Flying remains THE SAFEST way to travel.