NTSB graphic of the deadly midair collision at North Las Vegas Airport in July 2022.
The FAA recently issued an advisory circular regarding a pilot’s role in collision avoidance. The report, dated Oct. 20, comes in the wake of several deadly midair collisions this year.
Four people died on July 17 when a Piper PA- Malibu Mirage and Cessna 172N Skyhawk collided on short final at North Las Vegas Airport (VGT).
On Aug. 18, three people died when a Cessna 152 and a Cessna 340 collided on their final approaches to Watsonville Municipal Airport (WVI) in California.
The following month, on Sept. 17, three people died in a midair collision between a Cessna 172S and a Sonex Aircraft Xenos near Longmont, Colorado. The planes involved in that crash had taken off from different airports. The NTSB said the Sonex did not transmit ADS-B data during its flight, which was required in the airspace where the planes were flying.
The advisory circular aims to “alert pilots to human contributors to midair collisions and near midair collisions (NMAC), and recommend improvements to pilot education, operating practices, procedures, and improved scanning techniques to reduce midair conflicts.”
The AC is not mandatory and does not constitute a regulation but seeks “only to provide clarity to the public regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies” and revises a prior AC from June 2016.
The updates include additional information regarding pilot actions, procedures, NOTAM, and aircraft technology.
Links to a list of regulations, as well as further reading and training material, cover pre-flight checks, airport operations, taxi operations, in-flight right-of-way and other provisions to avoid a midair collision.
It also includes training information on human limitations, blind spots and other potential pilot distractions, as well as object detection, instrument and night flying, and pilot reaction time.
The AC also includes information for flight instructors and pilot examiners for collision avoidance training.
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