Canada’s TSB Reports on Virginia Midair

Stephen Pope

Tuesday, August 28, 2012 at 09:27 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A midair collision in Virginia involved aircraft owned by an NTSB employee (resulting in two fatalities) and an FAA employee (whose pilot survived).
Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB) is leading the investigation to avoid potential conflicts of interest involving U.S. agencies.
The collision occurred under VFR conditions, shortly after an air traffic controller received a collision alert while one aircraft was requesting a practice instrument approach.
The TSB is investigating the effectiveness of "see and be seen" for VFR flights and FAA controller responses to collision alerts between VFR aircraft.

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The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has released its first docket of factual information surrounding the May midair collision of a Beech Bonanza and Piper Cherokee near Warrenton, Virginia, involving airplanes owned by an NTSB and FAA employee. The NTSB has asked the Canadian agency to take the lead in the investigation to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

According to the TSB report, on May 28 at 4:05 p.m. a Beechcraft V35B Bonanza owned by, Dr. James Duncan, an NTSB employee, was in a shallow climb headed southbound when it collided with a Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee owned by Thomas Proven, an FAA employee, which was in level flight headed in a southeasterly direction.