Near mid-air collison incident over KSFO

[stu7708 244]

A United airlines Boeing 777-200 was close to a midair collision with a small private plane after departing KSFO for Beijing.

http://cbs5.com/local/Near.Mid.Air.2.1600727.html

There seems to be abit of a confusion as to what other plane was involved too... might be a intresting story in the future.

[mutley 4,498]

Looks like it was a 777-222 and an Aeronca 11AC, there are other reports too.

I bet the cockpit in the Aeronca didn't smell too good after that.

[hurricanemk1c 195]

The CNN artist doesn't know what 1500ft horizontally clearly! Looks like they are 20ft apart!

[allardjd 1,853]

The CNN artist doesn't know what 1500ft horizontally clearly! Looks like they are 20ft apart!

Don't ever be very surprised when the MSM get things concerning aviation wrong - it's the normal thing for them. I'm pretty amazed that both linked articles managed to write an aviation piece without using the term "nose dive". Maybe they're improving.

There's still some confusion over this. Though there is mention of an Aeronca in the audio transcript, the AC that came too close is now being described as a Cessna 182. I believe both were in the area, but the Cessna was the one that came too close.

It's too early to draw conclusions but there is a sniff that the tower controller may have to bear at least some of the responsibility. Also, I get the impression that the TCAS in the 777 may have been some help in all of this.

This is not a trivial event. Little AC can destroy big ones. I recall a Mexican airliner brought down by a mid-air with a light GA AC in the Los Angeles area a long time ago - 80s maybe.

@ Mut - From the tone of voice of the lady in the 777 in the radio transcript after the event, it may be that the Boeing cockpit might have needed a little sprucing up too. I'd say the pucker meter was in the red.

John