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Near miss when pilot does opposite of his radio calls

By NASA · December 27, 2021 ·

This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.

While maneuvering near ZZZ airport, another aircraft was on a similar flight in the same general vicinity.

My instructor and I made at least six radio calls to the other aircraft by its tail number to attempt to determine its intentions, but received no response to any of them.

Said aircraft did make occasional radio calls, but they did not reflect its actual flight path or maneuvering intentions.

On two occasions, the aircraft maneuvered directly into our immediate vicinity, although we were able to remain clear of it in the course of our maneuvering.

On the third instance, we had announced our intention to follow the other aircraft as we were both returning to ZZZ airport. We had maneuvered well outside of the traffic pattern because of other traffic in the area, continuing to follow the other aircraft.

Said aircraft then announced a right turn to increase its clearance from us and other traffic, but instead initiated a descending left turn directly into our path of flight.

At this point we were approximately 1,000 feet, and were forced to initiate an evasive descent of about 350 feet.

We estimate the lateral distance between our aircraft and the other to be approximately 150 feet, as its registration was clearly legible.

Prior to these events, our aircraft was on a short final approach as part of a practice landing, at which point the other aircraft in question cut in front of us to takeoff. We had announced our position and the other aircraft had responded that it was holding short of the runway, but did not do so.

Throughout the duration of our flight, the aircraft in question appeared to operate without regard for us or other aircraft in its vicinity, and had we not taken the evasive action that we did, a collision would have been highly likely.

Primary Problem: Human Factors

ACN: 1819860

About NASA

NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data, and disseminates vital information to the aviation community.

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Comments

  1. scott k patterson says

    January 3, 2022 at 7:54 am

    Seems the reporting aircraft has problems with the other aircraft. Maybe operations around that airport weren’t tidy enough, towered airport may have been more suitable..

  2. MikeNY says

    December 28, 2021 at 5:44 pm

    This may also be a medical issue though not ruling out the above. (thinking stroke or some type of dementia). Pilot needs to be reported.

  3. Cary+Alburn says

    December 28, 2021 at 2:40 pm

    Could be drugs or alcohol, but also possibly a confused student pilot. Although I occasionally fly into a towered airport, the bulk of my 49+ years of flying has been at non-towered airports, some with relatively high student traffic activities. I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve heard students say that they were on a right base when they were on a left base, that they were west of the airport when they were east, that they were on “left final”, that they were 5 miles away when they were actually in the pattern, that they were making a “right 360 for spacing” and instead circled to the left directly over the airport, that they were on “short final” when they were still 10 miles out, that they were landing on one runway when they were actually landing in the opposite direction, etc., etc., ad infinitem. What they say and what they do are frequently at odds. And it’s also increasingly common for their eyes to be inside rather than outside, because of the incredibly well-equipped trainers that are common these days, which have way too many bells and whistles to distract even experienced pilots from the basic job of flying the airplane.

  4. peter havriluk says

    December 28, 2021 at 11:18 am

    Voting for alcohol.

  5. James+Brian+Potter says

    December 28, 2021 at 5:55 am

    Likely culprit drugs, alcohol, or both.

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