On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 16:42:44 -0700, "Jay Beckman"
wrote:

"A.Coleman" wrote in message
om...
Please read this. This is what's killing GA and we ought to do something
about it.


I'm curious about something from the "4PA" incident...

The article mentions that there were five aircraft ostensibly travelling
together along the same route, right?

What if the lead aircraft (if there was one...) had mentioned to the
controller that they were a "flight of five" from the Pan Am Academy? Might
that have made a lightbulb go off in the controllers head that "these five
probably have similar call signs." ??

According to the article in the last paragraph and the NTSB report,
the aircraft were on an IFR flight plan. So they would not be
reporting to ATC as a flight of 5. They had a 5-10 min separation
between each other. You would only use flight of X for formation
flying. There was no tops reported but it was overcast at 2000 agl
18 miles away which would be around 3400 MSL and the wreckage was
found at 5500 msl. It would be hard to fly formation while IMC and at
night. So they would not have reported as such.


Scott D

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