Every commercial jet flying in US airspace is required to have a TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) that is basically a radar that informs it of surrounding aircrafts and provide audio warning if one gets within a certain proximity. It's mandatory in all aircrafts flying in US airspace by FAA airworthiness directive since 1996. So basically an air traffic control mistake can't cause any mid-air collisions anymore even if he tries to.
shareBoth planes had TCAS operating.
TCAS instructed the Russians to climb and the DHL plane to descend.
Had they both followed the instructions given by TCAS, no collision would have occurred.
However, the controller had already instructed the Russians to descend prior to the TCAS warnings, and they chose to follow those instructions over TCAS.
That is why they were both at 350 when they crossed paths.
Well, that and a long line of other unfortunate events and circumstances.
Disasters are rarely the result of a single mistake.
Hi Longhott. You're right that a chain of several mistakes has to occur to cause a crash. Even with the Saudi/Russian mid-air collision in India where 400+ died they made 6 mistakes, 4 by the pilots and 2 by the tower. However, both didn't have TCAS.
I honestly can't figure why would a pilot choose to obey the ATC commands instead of his own TCAS radar!
Is this movie based on the Überlingen mid-air collision? If so then why is the ATC guy American?
Regarding your first question: TCAS was relatively new at the time. It was mandatory on all planes flying over Europe, however most flights within Russia didn't have it equipped. The Russian pilots had not been instructed fully on TCAS yet, and the culture within Russia at the time was to follow instructions given by ATC over a machine. It probably wouldn't happen today.
Regarding your second question: the actual event happened over Uber lingen Germany. They are, for reasons which are not fully clear (but probably because Arnold is starring, so they want to maximize the US audience), moving events to Ohio.
I agree it was pilot error but for a totally different reason. According to the movie sequence of events the pilot decided to go to 6000 feet without confirmation. The AX-112 (Russians) were told to descend to 10000 feet>>>DH-616 fails to communicate to tower>>DH-616 says TCAS is telling them to descend also missed by the TC>>DH-616 tried twice more to communicate and fails>>AX-112 then told to descend to 6000 feet>>DH-616 then says lack of communication so descending to 6000 feet anyway.
Now the movie doesn't tell us what DH-616's original altitude but we can safely assume that it was 10000 feet and that's why the TCAS was suggesting they descend to 6000 feet. Here's the thing. I am pretty sure that the pilot shouldn't have descended to 6000 feet without confirmation, as it was if he stayed at 10000 feet there would have been no collision. On the other hand how was the DH-616 pilot to know that, also the Russian plane was at 6000 feet so why didn't TCAS tell the DH plane to rise to 10000 feet? TCAS fault there as well???? As another poster said TCAS was relatively new at the time.
Yes, the pilot did not get authorization ... it was his fault. It's a movie, but just because they are at the same altitude does not mean they would hit each other ... they are not at exactly the same altitude. But without the crash there is no movie ... but the thing is there is no real point for the movie. Arnie loses his temper and kills the guy just because he does not have the patience or give him the time to apologize. Terrible movie.
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