Word: pipering
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...close calls in the sky are by far the most worrisome trend in the nation's overburdened, understaffed air-safety system. The chilling reality of what can happen when luck turns sour was illustrated last Aug. 31 over Cerritos, Calif., when an Aeromexico DC-9 and a private Piper aircraft collided in the congested "birdcage" of controlled airspace around Los Angeles International Airport, killing 82 people. Many aviation experts like Duffy fear that what is still one of the safest air-transportation systems in the world is slipping dangerously as air traffic grows relentlessly through the unfettered competition of deregulation...
...Kramer, his wife and daughter took off to the northwest toward the Pacific in the four-seat Piper that he had purchased three years ago for $33,000. He then banked to the right and headed eastward toward Big Bear Lake. At that point he was in a sector far enough from LAX to avoid the controlled space if he kept his plane below 6,000 ft. Tragically...
...descend from 7,000 ft. to 6,000. At 11:53, he issued a warning to the Aeromexico jet: "Traffic 10 o'clock (slightly to the airliner's left), one mile northbound, altitude unknown." Re- sponded 498: "Roger." This plane is not believed to have been Kramer's Piper. Seconds later the controller's attention was diverted by a "pop-up," a small plane that unexpectedly radioed for traffic advice and instrument control. The controller assigned the plane a transponder code for identification as the craft flew across the Los Angeles Basin. But precious time was wasted when the pilot...
Federal investigators discovered that the Piper's path toward the airliner had been visible on the TRACON screen "for several minutes," as one described it. The planes had collided at 6,500 ft., just 500 ft. above the floor of the protected space. The left wing of the Piper clipped the descending airliner's left side at the tail. The jet's stabilizer sheared off the Piper's top, decapitating Kramer and his two passengers. There was no answer to the crucial question: Why had no one in either plane spotted the other craft in time...
...permission by radio to enter the restricted area; and although his radar transponder was on, as required, it was not equipped to transmit the mandatory altitude information. John Lauber, heading the investigation for the National Transportation Safety Board, reported that the controller said he did not recall seeing the Piper's blip. Even if he had seen it, said Lauber, "if he doesn't have altitude information, then it's a reasonable assumption for him that the aircraft is not operating in the terminal control area...