Why do airplanes crash in midair?
Here is a shocking statistic; most midair collisions happen during daylight or VFR conditions.
There have been 2 separate midair collisions in the last 2 months that involved 7 people. The disturbing part about these two recent accidents is that; 1). There were clear communications among the pilots, and 2). All pilots involved knew of the other pilot being in the traffic pattern. So why did a crash happen anyway?
Here is my theory: Situational Awareness becomes less of a priority to many pilots
The most recent midair plane crash in Watsonville CA, both pilots communicated clearly and knew of one another. Yet each pilot continued on his path without deviating or changing course due to traffic.
Unfortunately many pilots are trained to think this way.
I believe Flying the airplane and Situational awareness should be prioritized parallel to each other whenever you are low and or within the vicinity of an airport, or especially when you’re taking off or coming in to land. This is the only flaw that explains what happened in Watsonville. Although each pilot knew of the other. They both continued to fly their path because their main priority was to fly the airplane and land.
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