Mid-Air Collision. Think it Can’t
Happen?
Pilot Reveals Potential Dangers of Congested Skies
Every time you board a plane, do you have to silence that little voice in
your head that asks ‘what if?’ What if on this seemingly normal
day, the plane I’m boarding becomes a grim statistic of a debris field
strewn with twisted and charred metal? What if the air traffic control team
on duty is overworked and understaffed, and doesn’t notice my flight
veering into the path of another plane? Well, brace yourself.
Author/Pilot Philip Donlay’s latest thriller Code Black presents a
nightmarish air travel scenario. He puts the reader squarely in the middle
of an all-too-plausible mid-air disaster that leaves a crippled commercial
jet struggling to stay airborne over Chicago with nowhere to go – except
perhaps the icy waters of Lake Michigan . It’s Donlay’s wealth
of experience, plus his behind-the-scenes knowledge that makes Code Black
not only a compelling read—but perhaps an all to frightening reality.
Unfortunately for air travelers this scenario is not far-fetched in the least.
In October of this year two private planes came close to colliding in mid-air
near Las Vegas due to an error made by an air traffic controller. Donlay,
also a professional pilot with 30 years experience, knows all-too-well the
very real danger of mid-air collisions. He vividly remembers the day when
an air-controller error resulted in his plane and a 727 crossing paths at
37,000 feet over Indianapolis . “We saw him just in time,” says
Donlay. “We took evasive action and crossed over the top of him by
200 feet. It was a close call that I’ll never forget.”
While researching his book, Donlay uncovered more than a dozen documented
midair accidents. His fictional, but entirely possible, scenario envisions
what could happen if a small series of events at an air-traffic-control site
snowballed into a major midair collision. Midair collisions are a part of
our history, with nearly 1,600 people dead since the beginning of commercial
air travel. But could Donlay’s fictional account become a grim reality?
“Certainly, there are safeguards in place to prevent something life
what I write about in Code Black from happening,” says Donlay. “But
even with all the high-tech processes and systems at the air-traffic-controllers’ fingertips,
human error is still a very real danger.”
In June, Aviation Today reported seven recent near mid-air collisions in
the vicinity of the New York area. The local air-traffic controllers union
says Kennedy, Newark and La Guardia airports are short-staffed, a problem
cited by air-traffic-controllers in locations across the country.
While air-traffic-controllers bemoan not having enough people in the control
tower, the number of people in the skies is ever-increasing. FAA officials
say Very Light Jets, or VLJs, a new generation of aircraft that are inexpensive
and can land almost anywhere will cause a large surge in air traffic.
If you have ever sat in the back of an airliner and wondered, “what
if?”, then you are not alone. Code Black, although a work of fiction,
plays out the thrilling and terrifying possibility of a mid-air collision,
a terrible scenario…but one based in fact.
