Glider vs Jet...mid-air collision

[Denny Yen 0]

This mid-air collision occured last summer at 16,000 ft, but amazingly, pilots from both aircraft emerged with scratches. It occured in Reno - a popular destination for glider sports especially thermal flying in California state.

 

According to reports, the glider was piloted by a 58-year old Japanese man when it collided with a Hawker XP800 (a fast business jet) travelling at 300 knots at 16,000 feet on descent into Reno after a brief flight up from San Diego.

 

The impact was dramatic and it completely destroyed one wing of the glider as well as the nose cone of the jet. All instrumentations were lost, and the pilots asked for visual and radar vector from ATC.

 

The jet immediately radioed for emergency landing at nearby Carson City airport, and where landing gears failed to deploy, it made a belly landing.

 

The jet's TECAS warning did not activate because the glider pilot did not turn-on its transporder (not required by law) because he wanted to conserve batteries.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the preliminary investigation report:

http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/brief.asp?ev_id=2...01297&key=2

Edited April 23, 2007 by Denny Yen

[Azuan 0]

The fact that both pilots survived the impact is something amazing and can be considered as a miracle!

"The jet immediately radioed for emergency landing at nearby Carson City airport"

 

Isnt this the same airport featured on Con Air the movie? sounds very familiar...

[Teoh Z Yao 0]

I must say the glider pilot is very lucky!

 

By the way, the Reno you mean is probably in Nevada, not California.

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

I wonder why the instruments also damaged ..

[Yusoff 1]

That's what people called Miracle Landing. In this case, Landings. Much bigger miracle for the glider and its pilot to survive, just look at the jet's nose and right wing...

[Mohd Idham 0]

I wonder why the instruments also damaged ..

 

Gavin, the collision damaged the avionics bay, inside nose cone....