See and Avoid

Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 12:27 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

A recent mid-air collision at Watsonville, involving a Cessna 340 and a Cessna 152, resulted from both pilots' failure to "see and avoid" each other.
Despite one aircraft flying a standard VFR pattern and the other on a long straight-in approach, the author speculates both pilots had multiple opportunities to make minor flight adjustments to prevent the fatal encounter.
A possible underlying cause was both pilots being rigidly "locked into their plan," lacking the flexibility to adapt to traffic, especially at a busy non-towered airport.

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Watsonville, California, is where my Cessna 340 and I used to be based. It’s also where, as I write this, just a few days ago another Cessna 340 and a Cessna 152 unsuccessfully attempted to occupy the same place in the pattern at the same time. The resulting destruction of two aircraft and death of three people has garnered a lot of attention.

I try—I really try—to avoid speculating on causes of publicized accidents. Most all of us do it, but we just have too little data, even if the cause seems obvious. So, it is best to wait for more facts.