3 ms·
My first coding job was at an avionics subcontractor. One of the senior engineers there told me once that TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System, equipped on
by anderspitman 7y ago
My first coding job was at an avionics subcontractor. One of the senior engineers there told me once that TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System, equipped on all large planes) is theoretically capable of resolving up to 127 aircraft all converging on the same point. As long as all the pilots follow the directions, there won't be any collisions. I have no idea if that's actually true, and could definitely be remembering it wrong, but it always seemed impressive.
- redis_mlc 7y agoWell, TCAS works great in an ideal world. When you mix civil and military planes, and ATC and pilots who are non-native English speakers, and when your TCAS can be broken, then you get accidents like the German or Brazil collisions. In the military regime, you must follow orders. In the US civil aviation world, the pilot in command is the final authority and can deviate from any ATC order, with possible paperwork and/or consequences. Although English is the official language for international flying, local ATC and pilots use their local languages. There was a scandal in Hawaii when one flight school targeting Japanese students was issuing FAA licenses to pilots who couldn't understand English.
- anamexis 7y agoTCAS is not ATC though, no? Also I don't know if TCAS is localized, but it's only two words if I'm not mistaken, "Climb!" or "Descend!"
- i_am_proteus 7y agoAnd if TCAS says "Climb!" and the ATC says "Descend," what do you do? Think quickly! Several hundred souls are on the line.
- Scoundreller 7y agoFor civil pilots, that's easy: Whatever TCAS says. For military pilots, it's more complicated because they're now deviating from orders. Hopefully it's follow TCAS anyway, but more shades of gray regarding who can deviate.
- anamexis 7y agoClimb - TCAS always takes precedence. This was standardized after this incident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Japan_Airlines_mid-air_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Japan_Airlines_mid-air_in...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- manigandham 7y agoDepending on the plane, it's also a digital reading on the radar showing the speed and altitude for surrounding planes relative to yours. You don't have to wait until the collision warning to try and clear things up with ATC.
- thrill 7y agoThe pilot in command is the final authority in the military also.