Two aircraft had a very, very close call while taking off at Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH). This happened as a pilot made a major error, and the air traffic controller seemed a bit slow to catch it.
Continue reading: Dangerously Close Call At IAH: Pilot Error Puts Two Planes On Collision Course
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Ben - paragraph after the bullet points: turn 220 degrees to the left, not right.
Because in most jets the flight directors will command the turn to your preselected FCU heading of 220 the shortest way around…..it’s a known gotcha in IAH. Solution is once you get off the ground, then pull heading and rotate it to the left all the way over to 220 the flight directors will command the correct direction of turn!
Most probably the pilots preset the heading of 110 degrees. The logic on the Airbus is that it will maintain the runway heading until the pilots select heading mode. Once selected, the plane will turn in the shortest direction to the new heading, in this case right by 140 degrees instead of left by 220 degrees as ATC required
Oh not again and again and again!!
We're still unnecessarily gambling with human lives.
Another reason to support that passengers need to dress up and be nice to each other when they are flying.
Will haters say DEI is at fault? ATC female, Volaris Jetsal pilot wetback. In reality, ATC was a little slow to recognize but all the fault is the Volaris Jetsal pilot's.
DEI pilot here……I just put the plane on autopilot (I think) so I could call out this insanely racist and sexist remark.
Even Volaris is a Mexican airlines, but the pilot responding the radio sounds like Indian, not Hispanics.
Very egregious to jump to the conclusion that the pilot was the sole root cause in this. You should know by now there is seldom a single root cause ever.
When they asked tower to confirm their (incorrect) instruction, towers first word was ‘yes’. Correct response would have been ‘negative’.
A bad situation... Standardization of collision avoidance tech has saved so many lives since the late 20th century. But man.
ATCs do need to know they can't and shouldn't hem and haw on the frequency. It should only be clear, precise instructions transmitted. The equivalent of "just a sec y'all" might sound normal to much of America, but would confuse a lot of flight crews around the world. Standardization exists for a reason.
Houston based flyer. We always take off and immediately make a sharp turn left. Thats departing out of terminal A with a short taxi to the runway.
Maybe it’s different on the other side or the airfield with United and the international Terminal. That’s odd that planes are turning right.
"Wetback"?
Ben, you should delete that word from this person's comment. It is as offensive as any derogatory, racist term I can think of.
How are we in this day and age with tech we have and and planes do not have a "warning, turn left immediately, collision imminent?". Hundreds of lives lost needlessly for an overworked atc human that could make an error?
I get so much heat for this very subject.
Condolences to all the preventable lives that will soon be lost before they make real changes.
Maybe the passengers wore pajamas which is the biggest problem from the Sec of Transportation.