All over history, a mass of aviation accidents have been experienced in the industry, these accidents often occur in takeoff and landing phases of flights. Injuries of variable levels could result in such accidents and in many cases it causes a fatal injuries. This paper intent to analysis the accident of Aeromexico Flight 498 in regards of the journeys of aircraft involved, variable aspects that lead to the disaster, and results and recommendations revealed after investigations.
Aircraft’s Journeys On August 31st, 1986 the Aeromexico flight 498 took off on a DC-9 with six crewmembers and 58 passengers from Tijuana, Mexico under Instruments flight rules heading to Los Angles International Airport. The flight proceeded normally in such perfect weather conditions and started descending as approaching Los Angeles International airport. On the other hand, a privet pilot certificate holder and two passengers took off on a Piper Archer Airplane departing Torrance, California under visual flight rules in bound for Big Bear, CA.
Shortly after departure, the Piper aircraft flow off course for some reason. A while after, the Piper entered the towered controlled area (TCA) of Los Angeles International airport with no TCA clearance for entrance neither the pilot knowing that he was entering that area. The Piper was few miles away to intercept the course of the Aeromexico flight 498. As both aircraft were becoming closer to a mid-air collision, another Grumman Tiger aircraft under VFR conditions was flying at the east of Los Angeles international airport TCA with no clearance neither knowing he was in that area.
Air traffic controller (ATC) noticed the Grumman Tiger on his radar and started to communicate with him back and forth in regards of his position. On the other side of the TCA, the Aeromexico flight 498 and the Piper Archer were getting closer to intercept each others course which at the end lead to the disaster, a mid air collision with both aircraft diving to the ground Aspects lead to the disaster Investigations did not show a mass of details about Aeromexico flight 498.
It was efficient during its whole flight journey except that in such a situation with perfect weather conditions the captain should have been able to spot the Piper Archer to his left and avoid aircraft intersections earlier enough to avoid the crash. However, the Piper Archer and the Grumman Tiger both did the same mistake of entering Los Angeles International Airport TCA with no clearance. In the Piper’s situation, investigations showed that the pilot was well trained and knowledgeable of airspaces’ restrictions according to his flight plan path and his previous flight instructors.
More than likely he was off his flight course and ended up on the TCA. In my opinion, the pilot should have been aware and familiar with TCA charts and restricted areas near his flight route that he might end up to during his flight. Since the Piper’s pilot knew about airspaces that only show his lack of experience of the area because he was recently new to the southern California with 5. 5 hours logged on 7 flights, which by any chance shows a lack of experience.
In addition, investigations also showed that the Piper pilot could have had a hart attack, which may explains why he pulled up the controllers and started climbing in his way to intercept Aeromexico’s course. In my opinion, The Grumman Tiger’s pilot was the biggest distraction to this case. Although all radar data showed that all the systems have been functioning well at the time, air traffic controller did not see the Piper Archer intercepting the course of Aeromexico’s flight 498 due to this distraction that led to a Lack of communication to be involved in this situation.
First case scenario, if the Piper Archer was not shown on the radar, due to obstacles or any other reasons, then it would be unfair to put the blame on the traffic controller. The second scenario, which is more likely to be happened in my opinion, if the Piper Archer was actually on the controller’s radar screen and he has been distracted by the Grumman Tiger. The controller wasted time talking back and forth in an angry tone due to the risks this pilot is causing, which was enough to distract the controller away of other traffics in the area mainly the mid-air collision that was going to happen.
In this case, the controller shares an enormous amount of responsibility for this disaster because communication on aviation has to be clear, simple, and fast to achieve the highest efficiency of it. Results And Recommendations The result of this accident was not great to a lot of people midair collision resulted in the death of six DC-9 crewmembers, 58 passengers, the Piper’s pilot, its two passengers, and 15 people on the ground. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has devolved or updated some regulations in regards of this accident. FAA requires all US jets to have Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).
In addition, light flight operations are required to have a mood C transponder, which can report their altitude. Also, implement procedures to track, identify and take appropriate enforcement actin against pilots who enters TCA with no radio communications. In conclusion, even in a perfect weather conditions the day did not end well in Los Angeles International Airport. The guilt was spread to many factors that led to the accident, mainly the Piper Archer pilot and the ATC. This accident started new aviation safety era after developing the (TCAS), which had helped a lot to avoid mid-air collision since then.
