Another fine episode from this series, the usual mixture of reenactors, experts, newsreel footage, and impeccable computer-generated images.
1971. An Air West flight takes off from Los Angeles International Airport and curves around to its correct course, northeast, at the proper climb attitude. Meanwhile, flying towards the Marine Corps Air Base at El Toro is a speedy and nimble F-4 Phantom. The two meet in mid-air and both crash into the San Gabriel Mountains north of L.A.
There is only one survivor, the back-seat radar operator from the F-4 who managed to eject. He claims the DC-9 hit the fighter but the reconstruction of the aircraft proves he's mistaken. The vertical stabilizer of the F-4 slices through the fuselage just behind the cockpit and cut off the entire nose of the passenger jet.
An exhaustive examination follows. Why didn't the military airplane notify the ground of its presence? Because there was no rule that they should. Why didn't the ground control radar pick up the approaching fighter? Because the fighter was too fast to leave a solid series of blips and because the radar at Los Angeles Control was of World War II vintage.
Why didn't the pilots see the approach airplane? The relative speed was far too high. I was a lookout at the top of a Coast Guard cutter during fleet maneuvers with the Navy at San Diego, practicing war-time procedures. "Air action port!", came the announcement over the PA. While the 40 millimeter guns whined and swiveled sluggishly to the left, as a lookout, I was able to pick out three tiny dots on the horizon. A few seconds later they were only a bit larger. And a few seconds after that they ROARED over the ship, missing the mast by a couple of feet and causing everyone on the bridge to hit the deck. No more than a minute had passed before the fighters turned from dots into menaces. The impression it left was that fighters that are mere dots one moment are on you the next. I don't blame the pilots. An investigator reckons that at their closing speed they had about five seconds to avoid the collision.
The chief responsibility lay not with either pilot, not with ground control, but with the rules governing communication between the military and commercial airlines, which operated independently on two different systems.
1971. An Air West flight takes off from Los Angeles International Airport and curves around to its correct course, northeast, at the proper climb attitude. Meanwhile, flying towards the Marine Corps Air Base at El Toro is a speedy and nimble F-4 Phantom. The two meet in mid-air and both crash into the San Gabriel Mountains north of L.A.
There is only one survivor, the back-seat radar operator from the F-4 who managed to eject. He claims the DC-9 hit the fighter but the reconstruction of the aircraft proves he's mistaken. The vertical stabilizer of the F-4 slices through the fuselage just behind the cockpit and cut off the entire nose of the passenger jet.
An exhaustive examination follows. Why didn't the military airplane notify the ground of its presence? Because there was no rule that they should. Why didn't the ground control radar pick up the approaching fighter? Because the fighter was too fast to leave a solid series of blips and because the radar at Los Angeles Control was of World War II vintage.
Why didn't the pilots see the approach airplane? The relative speed was far too high. I was a lookout at the top of a Coast Guard cutter during fleet maneuvers with the Navy at San Diego, practicing war-time procedures. "Air action port!", came the announcement over the PA. While the 40 millimeter guns whined and swiveled sluggishly to the left, as a lookout, I was able to pick out three tiny dots on the horizon. A few seconds later they were only a bit larger. And a few seconds after that they ROARED over the ship, missing the mast by a couple of feet and causing everyone on the bridge to hit the deck. No more than a minute had passed before the fighters turned from dots into menaces. The impression it left was that fighters that are mere dots one moment are on you the next. I don't blame the pilots. An investigator reckons that at their closing speed they had about five seconds to avoid the collision.
The chief responsibility lay not with either pilot, not with ground control, but with the rules governing communication between the military and commercial airlines, which operated independently on two different systems.
