FAA Examines British Airways Mishap

(CBS/AP)  Six people were injured when a British Airways passenger jet was ordered to descend after a small plane nearby triggered its collision warning system, officials said Saturday.

Four crew members and two passengers suffered cuts and bruises on the Oct. 10 flight from Tampa to London, British Airways spokesman Richard Goodfellow said Saturday.

In past weeks, there have been close calls at Los Angeles international airport and New York's LaGuardia airport — which reported two mid-air near misses in one night, reports CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano.

"It's something that is gonna happen more and more often because our air traffic control system is a perfect relic of the 1950's — understaffed, undermanaged and underequipped, said Michael Boyd, an aviation safety consultant.

The FAA is working on a 10-year, $11.5 billion program to modernize the nations' air traffic control system. But a completion is already delayed until 2013.

"The air traffic control system is falling way behind the demands of our transportation system — and instead of keeping up with it, the FAA is basically trying to keep up with two years ago," says Boyd.

The FAA says it does not consider the British Airways incident a near miss, and points out such events are extremely rare. But as air traffic climbs past 80,000 flights a day, safety experts worry the odds of a tragedy are increasing too, reports Solorzano.

British Airways' Goodfellow said the British Airways aircraft, which had 175 passengers onboard, was put into a quick descent, dropping around 500 feet within seconds after the collision avoidance system went off.

However, the Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday the plane made a "controlled descent" of about 700 feet and was not in danger of collision.

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the British Airways 777 was traveling 50 to 60 miles north of Tampa when it was first instructed by air traffic controllers to climb to 26,000 feet.

Meanwhile, a privately operated Beechcraft King Air was located a mile away and flying about 1,400 feet above the British Airways flight's altitude. The private aircraft told air traffic controllers that it was aware of the commercial airliner's position, Bergen said.

Air controllers instructed the British Airways flight, which had then reached an altitude of 16,800 feet, to go to 16,500 feet. The collision avoidance system was triggered and the pilot brought the plane down 700 feet in the controlled descent, Bergen said.

"British Airways didn't mention anything to air traffic control about injuries" during the flight, and the flight continued to London as planned, Bergen said.

She said the FAA was later notified by British Airways that four flight attendants received minor injuries.

[newsthought1]

Yes, a King Air is not a "small" plane like a Cessna Skyhawk, but it is not a big plane like a commercial passenger jet either. Aircraft flying under visual flight rules (VFR) below 18,000 feet do not necessarily have to be in contact with Air Traffic Control, unless they are over areas with more restrictive airspace. In this case the collision avoidance system (called TCAS) on the 777 activated, which happens automatically in equipped aircraft, to alert pilots of potential collisions, and to suggest evasive maneuvers. One problem may be that apparently the King Air knew where the 777 was, and most likely had been directed to maintain visual separation. In such cases the pilot will see and avoid other aircraft- but TCAS does not know this. All TCAS sees is the converging courses, so it may trigger even if there is not a real danger. One thing the story did not mention is that ATC staffing is not getting much better because controllers- even trainees- are quitting because the FAA management has cut their pay drastically and has been generally treating them like dirt! It is an absolute shame.

[pojar1]

Wow! what a close call. I wished all crashes would have been avoided by this quidance system.

[jw218389]

A King Air is NOT a "small plane." Such a statement is unfair to the over 600,000 pilots and aircraft owners in the US. The Beechcraft/Raytheon King Air is a 1.2 MILIION dollar aircraft typically operated by mid-sized corporations with PROFESSIONAL pilots.

It is also important to note that ANY aircraft at that altitude is CONTROLLED by the FAA's air traffic controllers.