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[img]https://i.cbc.ca/1.4029953.1489771903!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_620/st-bruno-map.jpg[/img]
[quote]One person is dead after two small planes collided mid-air over a large shopping centre south of Montreal.
Three others were injured in the accident on Friday, which took place over the Promenades Saint-Bruno.
Police say one of the planes crashed into the mall's roof, while the other slammed into a car park.[/quote]
[quote]Nheil Martinez, who works inside the shopping centre, told the Canadian Press he saw the shadow of a plane and heard its motor before hearing a loud boom.
He saw pieces of the plane fall out of sky.[/quote]
[url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39306163]**SOURCE**[/url]
that only one person died is incredible, considering it was two planes. Still, sad news to hear.
Don't drink and fly kids.
How on earth does this happen, they're not exactly invisible
[QUOTE=Instant Mix;51977970]How on earth does this happen, they're not exactly invisible[/QUOTE]
Cockpits don't have a 360 degree view. High-wing planes have a huge blind spot above and a small one below them, with low wing planes being the opposite. Newer smaller planes with the wings behind the cockpit still don't have great views above or below them, just straight ahead and to the sides.
If flying by VFR, it's easy to miss something above or below you and you could easily have a head on collision if one plane is descending while the other is ascending, or they occupy each others blind spots and just fly into each other.
Back in WWI when biplanes and triplanes were king of the sky, pilots would cut holes in the upper central section of the wing and sometimes remove lower sections of the wing near the fuselage to get better views, because you were pretty much blind up and down.
[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;51979032]Cockpits don't have a 360 degree view. High-wing planes have a huge blind spot above and a small one below them, with low wing planes being the opposite. Newer smaller planes with the wings behind the cockpit still don't have great views above or below them, just straight ahead and to the sides.
If flying by VFR, it's easy to miss something above or below you and you could easily have a head on collision if one plane is descending while the other is ascending, or they occupy each others blind spots and just fly into each other.
Back in WWI when biplanes and triplanes were king of the sky, pilots would cut holes in the upper central section of the wing and sometimes remove lower sections of the wing near the fuselage to get better views, because you were pretty much blind up and down.[/QUOTE]
That makes complete sense, but you'd think if you remortgaged your house to buy a plane they'd figure out some way around this (I dunno, some mirror thing or cameras or something?) Is this not practical?
The problem with attaching external accessories to the aircraft is that it puts you into legal and regulation turmoil with the FAA.
They're not going to be happy that wimpy p. jones used a refrigerator magnet to attach a rear view mirror that flew off during takeoff and got sucked into the engine of another plane and caused it to crash. Nor would they be happy if wimpy used metal screws to attach it to his plane which accidentally damaged some critical electronic system or structural member and caused a crash. Or if it let water leak inside the airframe and cause corrosion damage which later lead to a crash.
Cameras and mirrors are nice, but they have to be properly engineered to be on the airframe. It's why you don't see GA aircraft flying around with chrome bumpers, RGB strips and 22" rims flying around the sky.
Another reason is drag and undesirable handling, a tiny vortex created by some parasitic accessory on the front of the plane could fuck with the elevator or rudder controls, or even some other aspect out of left field.
[QUOTE=DoctorSalt;51979231]That makes complete sense, but you'd think if you remortgaged your house to buy a plane they'd figure out some way around this (I dunno, some mirror thing or cameras or something?) Is this not practical?[/QUOTE]
Small-time guys usually fly visually but can request radar guidance if they're in an en-route sector's airspace. Even then, the best an air traffic controller can do is give a traffic call, which for two cheap vfr planes would amount to "traffic at your 12 o'clock, 5 miles, flying southwest, type and altitude unknown," and from there it's on the pilot. Most vfr flyers don't usually request radar services though, thinking the sky is a big place and what are the chances that exactly this will happen?
[QUOTE=J!NX;51977922]Don't drink and fly kids.[/QUOTE]
Unless its a powered Para-glider that is going no more than 70 miles per hour.
Thank god it wasn't two major commercial airliners. My heart jumped, I was expecting some breaking bad shit.
[QUOTE=cccritical;51979319]Small-time guys usually fly visually but can request radar guidance if they're in an en-route sector's airspace. Even then, the best an air traffic controller can do is give a traffic call, which for two cheap vfr planes would amount to "traffic at your 12 o'clock, 5 miles, flying southwest, type and altitude unknown," and from there it's on the pilot. Most vfr flyers don't usually request radar services though, thinking the sky is a big place and what are the chances that exactly this will happen?[/QUOTE]
I've heard some pretty scary stories of idiot GA pilots from air traffic controllers and even other pilots that make me never want to fly a small plane.
One that I remember the most details about was some old man had a dog that ran away so he thought it was a great idea to fly at treetop level with his door open looking down for his dog. This went on for awhile until he flew into some of those high tension regional powerline wires and killed himself in a blaze of glory.
The old mans family sued the local air traffic controller (who told the story) who said the guy was flying without a tail number, [I]with his radio off[/I], and no filed flight plan. So he had to go above and beyond to find which airstrip the old man took off from and get his cell phone number to contact him while flying to tell him to land. The old man wasn't having any of it when the controller told him to land, needless to say he never did.
Thankfully the air traffic controller had everyone on his side and the family obviously lost.
[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;51979541]I've heard some pretty scary stories of idiot GA pilots from air traffic controllers and even other pilots that make me never want to fly a small plane.
One that I remember the most details about was some old man had a dog that ran away so he thought it was a great idea to fly at treetop level with his door open looking down for his dog. This went on for awhile until he flew into some of those high tension regional powerline wires and killed himself in a blaze of glory.
The old mans family sued the local air traffic controller (who told the story) who said the guy was flying without a tail number, [I]with his radio off[/I], and no filed flight plan. So he had to go above and beyond to find which airstrip the old man took off from and get his cell phone number to contact him while flying to tell him to land. The old man wasn't having any of it when the controller told him to land, needless to say he never did.
Thankfully the air traffic controller had everyone on his side and the family obviously lost.[/QUOTE]
Haha yeah that sound about right. Just a few weeks ago there was almost a midair collision at my facility because of two dumbass pilots. They were cleared for takeoff and just sat on deck for maybe five minutes, when an arrival started coming in. At 6 miles the tower cancelled their takeoff clearance, didn't get a response. At 4 miles they cancelled it again, again no response. At 2 miles the tower called down one last time, telling them their clearance was cancelled and asking for acknowledgement, and the lead pilot told the tower "too late" and took off.
I swear to god, even in the military some pilots are just brats. "Who cares if it's unsafe just let me DO WHAT I WANT"
I haven't seen this much devastation since Wayfarer 515
[QUOTE=cccritical;51979640]Haha yeah that sound about right. Just a few weeks ago there was almost a midair collision at my facility because of two dumbass pilots. They were cleared for takeoff and just sat on deck for maybe five minutes, when an arrival started coming in. At 6 miles the tower cancelled their takeoff clearance, didn't get a response. At 4 miles they cancelled it again, again no response. At 2 miles the tower called down one last time, telling them their clearance was cancelled and asking for acknowledgement, and the lead pilot told the tower "too late" and took off.
I swear to god, even in the military some pilots are just brats. "Who cares if it's unsafe just let me DO WHAT I WANT"[/QUOTE]
I work at an FBO and I have had a guy threaten to start his turboprop in our hangar because our tug broke down. Pilots are the epitome of entitled, more often than not.
That said, stories like this still suck to hear. While entitled, most pilots I've met are at least courteous (just don't talk politics with them).
It still bewilders me how this ever happens. There's four-dimensions to NOT fuck up in and somehow people still sometimes manage to fuck up in all four of them.
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