I wonder, with the F-16's climbing ability, why the pilot didn't change
altitude. I know... Monday morning quarter backing, instrument
approach, and all that, but nobody would be dead and two aircraft
wouldn't have been lost. Only one practice approach...

Why, I remember back in the old days... Seriously, as a student pilot
departing San Antonio, we penetrated the clouds during a "quick climb"
and the controller called traffic 12 o'clock and (I don't recall how
many) miles. I immediately asked for a vector and the controller
replied, "He's too close - it wouldn't matter"!!! The instructor in the
back seat grabbed the stick, shouted, "I got it" and pulled about 5 g,
we broke out of the top of the clouds, just missing the light twin
dodging the cloud tops and apparently not on an IFR flight plan. Ya
gotta do what ya gotta do... I wish I'd thought of the quick pull-up at
the time, but I learned from it.

On 7/20/2015 10:28 PM, Steve Leonard wrote:
On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 7:33:59 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Too much Monday Morning Quarterbacking.
hey I'm not the one suggesting the controller should have said go right instead of left. But I'll admit its a fair point.

The MMQ I was talking about was myself, not you. Sorry that it was not clear. Agree, call the traffic. If no visual, change course. Just a terrible tragedy that the change suggested, and the rate at which the change was made managed to drive the two together, instead of further apart.

From the way I read it, if the F-16 pilot had done nothing, there would be nothing to report, as he had changed course by nearly 45 degrees (260 to roughly 215) before the collision occurred.

Steve Leonard

--
Dan Marotta