What is a near miss?

A “near miss”- simple as it sounds and happens more often than you’d think, it is when 2 aircraft are flying at the same altitude and almost crash into each other mid air.

So what happened in this case?

An Air France Boeing 777-300ER registration F-GZNN  was performing  a scheduled flight from CDG Paris to LIM Lima as AF480 whilst crossing over the Caribbean sea cruising at 36000 feet, and climbing to flight level 38000.

Air France Boeing 777-300ER

However, at the same time, an American Airlines Boeing 737-800 registration N926NN was performing a scheduled flight as AA1546 from GND Point Salines to MIA Miami which at this point was already at 38000 feet.

American Airlines Boeing 737-800

The Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems or (TCAS) was then activated on both aircraft, the Air France 777 was instructed to descend and followed descending from about flight level 37700 to flight level 374000. The American Airlines 737 was instructed to climb, followed and climbed more than 800 feet. After being clear of conflict, the Boeing 737 descended back to flight level 38000, while the Boeing 777 completed the climb to flight level 38000.

What is TCAS?

TCAS is an aircraft collision avoidance system, that monitors an aircraft’s airspace for other aircraft equipped with a corresponding active transponder. It warns pilots of the presence of any other transponder equipped aircraft to reduce mid-air collisions between aircraft.

AF480 and AA1546 mid-air

Conclusion:

Whilst this is a common occurrence, at the same time we have to be extremely happy that no accident has happened and that everyone made it safely to the ground, which just goes to show the amount of stress and hard work it goes into being a pilot and an ATC. Kudos to the pilots for such a swift reaction.

What are your thoughts on it?

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