NEAR-MISS IN SKIES OVER N.WALES BEACH
Air Ambulance and light aircraft came within just 50 FEET of each other
AN air ambulance and light aircraft came within around 50ft of colliding in mid-air off the coast of North Wales, a report has revealed.
The emergency helicopter and a Cessna 150 aircraft came close to crashing into one another just off the coast of Tywyn in Gwynedd in October.
The details of the near-miss have been revealed in a report by the UK Airprox Board.
According to the report, the air ambulance was flying at around 1,500ft on October 8 when the symbol of an unidentified aircraft began showing on its Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System.
It showed up on the screen for around a minute before an alert sounded, but the symbol was “bouncing around”, meaning the crew could not clearly see where the aircraft was.
There was also no information on what altitude the aircraft was flying at.
The report said: “The lefthand seat paramedic technical crew member spotted the other aircraft first and directed the pilot’s eyes on to it (initially blind to them due to fuselage A-pillar until they moved position in the seat).
“The other aircraft was in the 2 o’clock and not moving across the windscreen, either up, down or laterally.
“They performed a robust descending, port turn and the aircraft passed overhead.
“The rear seat passengers saw the aircraft pass overhead through the starboard rear passenger window as they turned and descended.
“All crew members agreed the passing of both aircraft had been well within 100ft vertically, probably as close as 50ft vertically.
“It was a simple case of two aircraft not seeing one another hampered further by the other aircraft being masked by a grey/white cloud base background.”
The pilot of the air ambulance assessed the risk of collision as being “high”.
The aircraft they nearly collided with was being flown by a pilot who was travelling towards Tywyn with the intention of flying towards Aberdyfi before returning towards Llanbedr.
The report said the pilot was manually scanning for other aircraft throughout the flight, but with no anti-collision equipment on-board they had no indication of any traffic in the area.
They were making regular “blind calls” on the Llanbedr Traffic frequency to alert other aircraft to their presence.
They did not see the air ambulance, and it was not until the helicopter pilot reported the near-miss in radio transmissions that they became aware of what happened.
During their assessment of the near-miss, the board considered whether the air ambulance pilot could have flown to the right of the coastline to help keep the aircraft apart.
They also considered whether the helicopter pilot could have made their own blind calls on the radio frequency earlier so the Cessna pilot could have alerted them to his presence.
The board also discussed the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System equipment on board the helicopter, and observed that there were merits in improved equipment available.
They concluded: “When determining the risk, in the absence of any radar data, the board took into consideration the separation and avoiding action described by the [air ambulance] pilot, together with their assessment of a ‘high’ risk of collision.
“Members quickly agreed that the late sighting followed by late avoiding action by the [air ambulance] pilot, coupled with the non-sighting by the [Cessna] pilot, described a situation whereby safety had been much reduced below the norm.”