Posted 10:10 AM by Blah blah

European Plane Crash

Next time, listen to the machine! Controller Sent Jets Into Crash, Flight Data Show (NY Times):
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Information from the flight recorders aboard the two planes that crashed into each other one week ago over southern Germany show that a Swiss air traffic controller in effect put the planes on a collision course by ordering the Russian pilot to descend at the same time that the plane's own collision-avoidance system was urging him to climb.

The new data, released today by German investigators, show that the two planes' automated systems communicated with each other exactly as they were meant to do and that the accident would probably not have occurred if the Russian pilot had simply ignored the Swiss controller in Zurich. The collision killed 52 Russian schoolchildren and 19 adults....

German investigators said today that tapes from the flight data recorders showed that both planes' collision avoidance systems worked exactly as they should have and would have prevented the crash if the traffic controller had not intervened.

Known as a Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS, the on-board systems communicate with each other and plot out evasion maneuvers for each airplane.

Slightly less than one minute before the crash, the systems aboard both planes barked out a preliminary warning of "traffic, traffic."

About 15 seconds after the first warning, the system aboard the DHL cargo plane issued an order of "descend, descend." The system aboard the Russian Tu-154 issued an order of "climb, climb."

But in a moment of confusion, the traffic controller in Zurich ordered the Russian plane to "descend level 350, expedite descent" a direct and urgent order to drop from an altitude of 36,000 feet to 35,000 feet....

The tape disclosed today makes it clear that the Russian plane was grappling with conflicting instructions that came almost simultaneously, and aviation experts said this was probably the reason the pilot hesitated before reacting.

"He knows the air traffic controller is telling him to descend, and he knows the TCAS system is telling him to climb, and that is a difficult spot to be in," said Peter Quaint-Mere, a former air traffic controller who is now the director of Global Aviation Audit, a consulting firm that specializes in airport safety. "Pilots tend to listen to the air traffic controller because they trust a human being and know that a person wants to keep them safe."

But Georg Fongern of Cockpit, the German pilots union, said that if the TCAS does come on during a flight, the pilot should give that top priority. "We train for that," he said....

European aviation experts say the air crash was a result of an increasingly acute shortage of qualified air traffic controllers. The West European air traffic authorities say they need about 1,800 to 2,000 controllers in addition to the 18,000 already in service. In Germany alone airports need 100 more controllers, experts say, and the country has already begun importing Irish controllers.

Air traffic has been increasing steadily by about 6 percent a year for the last decade. In January, to accommodate more airplanes, the European authorities reduced the minimum vertical distance between planes from 2,000 to 1,000 feet.