Tuesday’s deadly midair collision of an F-16 and Cessna 150 in South Carolina was the first in the United States between a military and civilian airplane in a decade, highlighting how rare such tragedies are while also pointing to the need to remain especially vigilant when airplanes of vastly different performance capabilities mix in the same airspace.
The Air Force F-16 was conducting an instrument approach at an altitude of between 2,000 and 3,000 feet into Charleston Air Force Base when it collided with the Cessna, which had just departed from Berkeley County Airport near Moncks Corner, South Carolina. The military jet was able to continue flying for a short period of time before the pilot safely ejected. A father and son aboard the Cessna were killed. Wreckage of the airplanes has been located about 10 miles apart.
In 2005 a military trainer collided with a civilian crop duster, killing its pilot. The accident prompted the military to create seeandavoid.org, a website that highlights military flight operations areas around the country and includes resources for GA pilots to reduce the risk of collisions with high-speed military jets.
George Perry, vice president of AOPA’s Air Safety Foundation and a former Navy F-18 pilot, says there are some common-sense precautions GA pilots can take when they know they will be flying in areas where military jets may be present. The first is to request ATC flight following to help with traffic separation.
“If you have a tactical military fighter jet traveling at 250 knots or faster, traditional see-and-avoid techniques don’t work very well because the closure rates are so high,” he said. “Let ATC help you with separation.”
It’s also a good idea to climb to at least 1,000 feet in the vicinity of military training routes where jets can be maneuvering at high speeds and low altitude. For most other types of military operations, jets climb fast up into the flight levels, Perry said.
He also urged GA pilots to embrace traffic avoidance technology such as ADS-B and TIS-B and to ensure their transponders are switched on to altitude reporting mode to help ATC and military pilots pick them up on radar.
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