A look back at a 1986 fatal plane crash that changed aviation safety
ARCHIVES: 1986 Congress takes hard look at aviation safety
Nearly three decades before last week’s deadly mid-air collision between an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter, a deadly plane crash in Los Angeles changed aviation safety standards forever.
WASHINGTON - Nearly three decades before last week’s deadly mid-air collision between an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter, a deadly plane crash in Los Angeles changed aviation safety standards forever.
The backstory:
On August 31, 1986, Aeroméxico Flight 498 was clipped by a private Piper PA-28 Archer in the skies above the Cerritos neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The collision killed all 64 passengers on board the Aeromexico flight, all three aboard the PA-28 and 15 more on the ground.
Read the full NTSB report from the 1986 collision here.
The crash was the catalyst for change in America’s air traffic system. In 1986 and before, the only way for pilots to avoid a collision was to visually see the aircraft. At the time, the only crash avoidance systems in the air were experimental.
Following the tragic plane crash in 1986, the FAA began requiring that all commercial jets be equipped with a traffic collision avoidance system, also known as TCAS.
How does TCAS work?
Big picture view:
TCAS continuously detects other aircraft within about 12 miles. Transponders on planes with TCAS automatically communicate with each other and relay their position in the air – and pilots then determine what course to take. TCAS operates independently of ground-based equipment to provide pilots with guidance on how to avoid a potential collision.
How did TCAS factor into the DC plane crash?
Dig deeper:
The American Airlines flight and the Black Hawk helicopter collided at too low of an altitude for TCAS to send an alert. That’s how it’s designed – TCAS avoids sending alerts at low altitudes to avoid distracting pilots and crew during takeoff and landing.
"It is very unlikely that the TCAS on the airliner would have provided any alerts to the flight crew," said Wesley Olson, leader of the transportation and resilience group at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, in an interview with The Washington Post.
READ MORE: NTSB investigates altitude data of Black Hawk helicopter in deadly midair collision