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More than meets the Eye | The HORRIFIC story of The World’s WORST midair collision
🕑 Added 2023-05-27 21:43:32 +0000 UTCNovember, 1996
Two planes carrying 349 people speed towards each other in the evening skies above Delhi.
In one of those planes, five pilots sit at the controls, making preparations to land. In the other, three pilots are climbing along their departure route.
An air traffic controller sits at the top of a tower, watching two blips on his screen draw closer together.
What do these things have in common?
The people immediately in charge of the outcome, those sitting in the pointy ends of these structures, also sit at the pointy end of a vast and complex infrastructure which undergirds their actions.
Aerospace technology, air law, aircraft design philosophy, and political and historical contingencies. All of these systems and infrastructures make up the foundations for the pyramid of aviation safety, on top of which pilots, and air traffic controllers sit. What you’re about to see, is the shocking story of what happens when the foundations of this pyramid, are rotten.
This is the story of the 1996 Charkhi Dadri Mid-air collision.
Comments
Julie Peasley
Also wanted to say I enjoyed your interview with the British Airways pilot of this flight. What a sweet gentleman! It really helps round the story out more to hear his firsthand account. Also I guess one of the passengers wrote a book about the harrowing flight and she later married a man from the row in front of her. :-)
Thanks Julie! Absolutely, this was so preventable with modern tech
Julie Peasley
Great video, one of the best yet I’d say in terms of storytelling, pace, flow and just the right amount of technical info. Add it to a list of accidents that could have been prevented by TCAS, had it been more ubiquitous at the time. Great job!
