Pilots..serious question?

Question

have you ever come close to crashing a commercial airliner?
Like a near miss?

I am talking COMMERCIAL airliners.

Answer 1

I have had two near mid-air collisions and in both cases, TCAS saved me from the mid-air.

One time I was being radar vectored for an approach into Los Angeles. I was level at 6,000 feet going 250 knots. Suddenly, without any warning, I got a TCAS resolution advisory (which makes the sound "woop woop, pull up, pull up"). Without seeing the other aircraft, I immediately pulled back on the yoke. Right as I did so I looked down and saw the other aircraft, which was heading in the opposite direction. He was probably going 150 knots. Even though he passed by us almost instantly (with a closing velocity of about 400 knots), the instant that I looked down at him is frozen perpetually in my mind as though it took forever. I am hear to tell you that there really is such thing as temporal distortion! I distinctly remember looking down into the skylight of the Cessna 210 and looking at the pilot as he looked up at me. Our eyes made contact with one another. I could see the whites of his eyes around the sides of his gold-rimmed Ray Ban aviator style sunglasses, I distinctly remember seeing his red and black striped argyle shirt, and the clear ear gel seals of his Bose head set. He was flying VFR and perhaps he had just turned on his transponder (which gave me the TCAS RA) but when I asked RAPCON about him, they didn't know he was there.

On another occasion I was taking off out of Oklahoma. I was taking off to the south. I was assigned a SID that took me 3 or 4 DME south of the airfield (I forget exactly how far) before it had me take an almost 180 degree left hand turn to the north. At the same time that I was in the hammerhead I heard a lady in a Piper who was directed to contact the tower controller by RAPCON. She was flying VFR and had inadvertently penetrated a MOA (which is legal, but certainly not advisable). Furthermore, she was headed right towards a live firing exercise that the Army was conducting. I am hearing the conversation between her and the tower and it was obvious that she was quite stressed out. I could sense the tension in her voice. Tower cleared me to takeoff right as she was directly over the airfield. She was flying eastbound. Again, my SID dictated that I fly 3 or 4 miles to the south (I forget exactly how far) before making an almost 180 degree left hand turn. I got airborne, was busy with the SID when two malfunctions simultaneously happened on board my airplane, one of the landing gear didn't retract normally and a slat brake had fired. While I was flying, the other pilot and flight engineer began running through the checklists to correct our malfunctions. Meanwhile I am still listening to the conversation between the control tower and the lady in the Piper. I am traveling much faster in my aircraft than she was in her Piper. I had my eyes outside most of that departure because I just had a gut instinct that she was going to be a conflict. Lots of things were happening all at the same time that we were trying to deal with in addition to looking for the Piper and flying the SID itself. Suddenly I got a TCAS resolution advisory directing me to descend. I pulled back on the throttles and descended. I missed the Piper by perhaps 250 feet. Nevertheless she looked very large in my windscreen. I can't even imagine what a C-5 Galaxy (a 248' long, four engine cargo jet, slightly larger than a Boeing 747-400) looked like in her windscreen! After avoiding that conflict I could now REALLY sense the tension in her voice. I could tell that she was downright scared; a dear in the headlights. She was so stressed about the situation that I wouldn't be surprised if she never piloted another aircraft again. A series of errors took place that caused this. First off, the tower never should have cleared me for takeoff because she most definitely was a conflict. Tower controllers don't have radars but they should have coordinated with RAPCON before clearing us for takeoff. I learned after-the-fact that it was a student controller in the tower. Secondly, it was very unwise of the lady in the Piper to penetrate a MOA (especially without knowing about it; there is really no excuse for that), Third off, the two malfunctions that simultaneously happened in my aircraft distracted all of our attention. Once again TCAS saved the day.

Often times when there is an accident in aviation there is a series of errors that causes it. Often times, a string of events takes place and if anywhere along the way the string is broken, the accident wouldn't have happened. In aviation, things tend to "snowball". In other words, a very small situation is made worse and worse by a series of other small things that add to it. Before you know it you have a situation that can be deadly. This was one example of this. Luckily, TCAS saved us from disaster.

Answer 2

There was a near-crash in 1999 of a United Airlines 747 departing San Francisco that you might find interesting.

San Bruno mountain lies off the departure end of one of the runways at SFO. A reserve first officer was flying the departure when one of the engines failed shortly after takeoff. The pilot failed to follow the proper emergency procedure after engine shutdown and came within about 100 ft. of putting the aircraft into the hillside. Google "United Airlines, 747 and San Bruno" to read the details.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Nope. Never. If you are looking you shouldn't get to close to anything! I have had a whole lot of other fun though. Engine failures, windows pop-out, smoke in the cabin, etc. With all of the millions of hours logged every year you are talking about a very very rare event.

Answer 5

yea i crashed one, killed a few people but i lived thank god....lmao sorry i had to joke about it

Answer 6

.....never ....
...and don't wanna ..!!!