light planes collide over Seattle?

"Seth Masia" wrote in message
...
The AP report is very sensible.

This accident reminds me of last week's thread about spotting floatplanes
over Lake Sammamish.

Was it that recent? Wow...time flies.

In this case the Cessna was in the pattern for Renton and looking into the
sun -- but the Beaver was in a separate pattern for Wiley Post, the
seaplane base off the north end of the Renton runway.

For what it's worth, IMHO this was much more like a "multiple planes at a
point of congestion" (a towered airport, in this case) than it is like the
previous thread about planes around Lake Sammamish.

The towered airport specifically attracts planes to the same spot (even one
like Renton where there are two landing surfaces), while in the case of
operations over an urban lake like Sammamish, landplane traffic really ought
to be above 1000' above the lake (especially when the lake itself is
bordered by developed hills of 200-300'), while the seaplane traffic
operating at the lake is likely to be 1000' or below. And of course, over
an urban lake there is not nearly the same kind of predefined pattern that
would attract to airplanes specifically to the same spot as one would find
at an airport.

Both of these guys should have been talking to the tower and the tower
should have been watching out for both of them.

Both of those guys were talking to the tower (according to the news report),
and yes the tower should have been helping them avoid each other, but the
tower's primary responsibility is to control use of the runway, not the air
around the runway.

It sounds as though the sun might have been a factor, but I also wonder
whether either pilot had been paying attention to radio transmissions to or
from the other aircraft, for the purpose of developing a good sense of
awareness of other traffic in the vicinity. And of course, the sun should
only have been a factor for one of the pilots at most.

That said, reports as to what exactly happened are still conflicting. The
evening news was reporting that the 150 was flying perpendicular to the
flight path of the floatplane, while the web site's article appears to be
saying that the flight paths were nearly parallel, in the same direction.
It probably will be months (or a year) before the NTSB report comes out and
gives us anything close to accurate information as to what actually
happened.

Pete