Another Dramatic aviation incident...

[Seeker]

Bonehead CBC reporting

Passengers aboard a flight headed to western Labrador were shaken this week when their aircraft came close to another plane.

Provincial Airlines Flight 1992 was en route from St. John's to Wabush when passengers encountered what they thought was turbulence.

"It was just like an air pocket, but it lasted way longer than an air pocket and the plane kind of gave a little jerky motion and we all just started screaming and yelling," said Johanna Hibbs, the coach of a female hockey team heading home after a tournament.

"Then all of a sudden it was over."

Provincial Airlines confirms that the flight crew had reacted when a collision avoidance system warned of another plane in their airspace.

A report filed to the Transport Canada database shows that an Air Canada Jazz flight had been en route from Halifax to Gander, and was fcleared to descend to 17,000 feet. However, it could not level off and had to drop further, and came close to the Provincial Airlines flight.

"Separation between the two aircraft was 2.5 nautical miles horizontally and 500 ft vertically," the report said.

Hibbs said the pilot told the passengers what happened during a stopover in Deer Lake.

"The indicator light came on in the plane saying that there was someone coming towards us and good thinking on Conrad, that he just dropped [in order] to avoid the other plane," she said. "So hats off to Conrad. He did a real good job."

Provincial Airlines also praised its flight crew, and told CBC News that shortly after the avoidance maneuver, air traffic controllers cleared the plane to continue on its course.

No one was injured during the incident.

Sounds to me like the Provincial crew reacted aggressively to the TCAS and threw their passengers against their seatbelts - done correctly a TCAS maneuver should be imperceptible to the passengers (usually). Rarely need a -2G pushover. This, of course, could have been one of those times but it's unlikely IMO.

[boestar]

I had to do a negative G inspection on an aircraft that reacted to a TCAS warning at Low Altitude after takeoff. They did a push over at low altitude. The first part of the inspection was removing the seat cover from the pilots A$$.

[Guest alkaid]

People need to realize that a TCAS RA manouver is not a sudden pushover or pullup. It adds or subtracts 1/4 g to the aircraft when done properly for an initial RA. In other words, for a "descend" RA, do a normal descent toward the commanded descent rate, not a big pushover. There is enough time given to not require aggressive manouvering. If people were screaming in the back of an aircraft or some sort of negative G inspection is required, the manouver was too aggressive.

[Seeker]

Here's the CADORS narrative:

JZA862, a CRJ 600 enroute from Halifax (CYHZ) to Gander (CYQX) was given a descent clearance from 31,000 ft to 17,000 ft. SPR1924, a Dash 8 enroute from St. John’s (CYYT) to Deer Lake (CYDF) was level at 16,000ft. Both aircraft were issued the Gander altimeter setting of 29.06. As JZA862 passed through 18,000 ft, the flight crew switched the altimeter setting, placing the aircraft at approximately 17,150 ft. At this altitude the autopilot was not able to level the aircraft at 17,000 ft as cleared. JZA862 descended below the clearance altitude. The SPR1924 flight crew received and carried out Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) descent to 15,000 ft. Separation between the two aircraft was 2.5 nautical miles horizontally and 500 ft vertically.

Cadors Number:2011A0237