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.
My student and I were practicing in the pattern doing takeoffs and landings. When we were on the beginning of the left downwind for XL, we noticed traffic coming directly at us that had just departed from Runway XR that was doing a left turn approximately on our midfield downwind.
Once we noticed it I took controls and immediately closed the throttle and pitched down to lose altitude fast to avoid them colliding with us. Our traffic advisory had gone off as I took controls and started to descend.
I contacted Tower and let them know we just had a near-miss on the downwind and asked if traffic was any factor after that.
They tried to contact the airplane that almost collided with us, they had switched frequencies already.
When they came back into the pattern to do a full stop terminate landing, Tower than advised them to give them a call for possible pilot deviation.
My student and I continued to do takeoffs and landings in the pattern and then when we did a full stop terminate to taxi back to the ramp.
Tower gave us a number to call when we got back inside. They told us that the airplane that almost collided with us did not follow instructions. They were told to make a right turn out on course. Instead they made a left turn out, which then positioned them directly to us.
The other pilot said that they had us on their ADS-B in, but in my opinion they did not because we barely were able to avoid them.
My student was able to handle instructions from me when I said “my controls” to avoid the collision and was able to be scanning for traffic like he was taught even at a towered airport when the traffic is supposed to be controlled.
Tower had stated that they were looking down at the time of the incident and when they looked up the plane was going the wrong direction and was in line with us and they saw us avoid the collision. Tower advised the actions we could take to file the incident and wanted to inform us we did everything right in that scenario and described to us exactly what happened to cause the incident.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 1899815
Reminds me of when I was with a guy in a C310 at Teterboro, taxiing at night on a runway per tower instructions. We both saw an aircraft on an intersecting taxiway ahead to our left and it was obvious if both aircraft continued at the same speed, we would meet in the middle of the runway at about a 90 degree angle. My C310 pilot’s initial action was to slow our speed to nearly a stop to keep a safe distance – then he queried the tower as the other aircraft taxied across the runway in front of us. The tower said the other aircraft had been instructed to hold short of the runway. Long story short, maintain situational awareness of all aircraft movement and operate defensively.
Notice the fear of “doing something wrong.” Way more fear of that than dying. Call this number, blah blah blah.
I can’t understand the terminology, “near miss”. It’s a near hit!