We should know by now from watching air crash investigations that an airline incident is a product of many failures at once. I am pretty sure that a single breakdown does not cause hundreds of people to fall into the ocean.
I am also pretty sure from my readings of Aviation Herald that dozens of incidents happen every day. Few result in anything beyond a sensationalist headline and a few lines on twitter.
So yesterday September 20 2013 an incident occurred almost directly over my head. About 38,000 feet over my head actually. That is about eleven and a half kilometers - up!
I saw it happen not in the air but on Twitter a short while later. You have probably seen the headlines that 2 Qantas planes almost crashed over Adelaide.
I'd like to tell you how I followed up what had happened and the tools I used to discover the truth.
I am also pretty sure from my readings of Aviation Herald that dozens of incidents happen every day. Few result in anything beyond a sensationalist headline and a few lines on twitter.
So yesterday September 20 2013 an incident occurred almost directly over my head. About 38,000 feet over my head actually. That is about eleven and a half kilometers - up!
I saw it happen not in the air but on Twitter a short while later. You have probably seen the headlines that 2 Qantas planes almost crashed over Adelaide.
I'd like to tell you how I followed up what had happened and the tools I used to discover the truth.
It has been classed as a serious incident and will be investigated. The results of the investigation will be concluded in September - 2014. Yes it will take 12 months to investigate an event where everything worked out fine, no one was hurt, no one even knew. That is as it ought to be. The reason flying is so safe today is that we do investigate such - dare I say - non events in such detail.
Flying is safe. Odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 11,000,000 compared to 1 in 5,000 in a car. If you are that unlucky also remember that 95.7% of people who are in a plane crash, survive. Much of this is because of the work done to investigate every single incident.
OK this was not a non event but nobody even spilt their coffee. Perhaps a couple of pilots were a little bothered but they did their job perfectly and all worked out well. The flight warning systems TCAS worked perfectly and warned all concerned of the potential for a problem. The ATC, air traffic controller may want a day or two off work, but even the ATC did what needed to be done after what may have been a mistake. Seems the ATC is now on leave as it is investigated.
The story as best I can gather it looks like this.
This is a great story but now let me tell you the best bit.
I know all this because of the tools under my fingers all the time.
I saw the twitter notice
Flying is safe. Odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 11,000,000 compared to 1 in 5,000 in a car. If you are that unlucky also remember that 95.7% of people who are in a plane crash, survive. Much of this is because of the work done to investigate every single incident.
OK this was not a non event but nobody even spilt their coffee. Perhaps a couple of pilots were a little bothered but they did their job perfectly and all worked out well. The flight warning systems TCAS worked perfectly and warned all concerned of the potential for a problem. The ATC, air traffic controller may want a day or two off work, but even the ATC did what needed to be done after what may have been a mistake. Seems the ATC is now on leave as it is investigated.
The story as best I can gather it looks like this.
- QF581 SYD - PER is close to Adelaide at FL380. That is Flight Level 380 or 38,000 feet.
- QF576 is PER - SYD at FL390.
- They are 1000 feet apart vertically which I believe to be the regulation separation.
- Pilots like to change altitude to give the meat in the back a smoother ride whenever possible.
- QF581 wants to go to FL400 and the ATC clears the climb.
- They get close.
- 581 gets to FL383 when the warnings go off and drops back to FL380
- 576 lifts to FL392 now 900 feet apart.
This is a great story but now let me tell you the best bit.
I know all this because of the tools under my fingers all the time.
I saw the twitter notice
Near miss is a big call and Great Australian Bight is just wrong but I did not know that yet.
I checked the news services and discovered that the plane was soon to land in Perth and all were well so I began to investigate.
What plane from Sydney, a Qantas A330 was soon to land in Perth?
I used an iPad app called Flight Boards to check arrivals in PER and discovered the flight number - QF 581. Then I began my investigation. I launched FlightRadar 24 in a web browser.
I used its time shift feature to look back through traffic over Adelaide that day. I did not know the time the incident happened so it was playing detective. I knew the arrival time in Perth so I tracked back a few hours and began the time shift play back at 2.00 UTC. I ran the play back at 60 times normal so I could get a quick overview of the situation and I zoomed out to see from Ceduna to Mildura to begin my discovery.
I soon saw QF581, then noticed the opposite flight was QF576. I watched them approach and saw the whole incident.
Somewhere over Richmond, Adelaide QF581 turns south a little from its course and the planes pass over the gulf.
I launched QuickTime and created a new screen capture. I selected the area I wanted to record then ran the Flight Radar playback. I trimmed the movie and made it into a 40 second piece to show how air traffic actually does work.
So why write this.
Hope you enjoy my perspective and the little video.
I checked the news services and discovered that the plane was soon to land in Perth and all were well so I began to investigate.
What plane from Sydney, a Qantas A330 was soon to land in Perth?
I used an iPad app called Flight Boards to check arrivals in PER and discovered the flight number - QF 581. Then I began my investigation. I launched FlightRadar 24 in a web browser.
I used its time shift feature to look back through traffic over Adelaide that day. I did not know the time the incident happened so it was playing detective. I knew the arrival time in Perth so I tracked back a few hours and began the time shift play back at 2.00 UTC. I ran the play back at 60 times normal so I could get a quick overview of the situation and I zoomed out to see from Ceduna to Mildura to begin my discovery.
I soon saw QF581, then noticed the opposite flight was QF576. I watched them approach and saw the whole incident.
Somewhere over Richmond, Adelaide QF581 turns south a little from its course and the planes pass over the gulf.
I launched QuickTime and created a new screen capture. I selected the area I wanted to record then ran the Flight Radar playback. I trimmed the movie and made it into a 40 second piece to show how air traffic actually does work.
So why write this.
- I was excited with the investigation.
- I knew the whole story long before the sensationalist press got their teeth into it.
- I am a keen follower of the aviation industry.
- I actually like a big Qantas and hate to see them canned.
- I support the amazing work of the ATC and want to do my little bit from my little perspective.
- The world is not ending because an incident occurred.
- And... it is fun.
Hope you enjoy my perspective and the little video.
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