You’d think we would’ve learned our lesson about a lack of separation between commercial aircraft and helicopters near airports from the fatal crash earlier this year, but here’s another incident that leaves us shaking our heads…
The Southwest jet was given clearance to land on runway 6L, while the helicopter was crossing the airspace from south to north. Long story short, the helicopter crossed directly in the path of the Southwest 737, to the point that the Southwest plane got a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alert, due to lack of separation. As a result, the Southwest pilots performed a go around.
The jet and the helicopter were at the same altitude, with less than half a mile separation. Honestly, I’d recommend just watching the below video, as VASAviation does such a good job with visualizations of these incidents. I think anyone watching the below video could see from well before the incident how this was going to unfold.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
