From: geoff@peck.com (Geoff Peck)
Subject: Re: Two planes collide over Santa Paula Airport
Organization: Geoffrey G. Peck, Consultant, San Jose CA
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 19:00:21 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.151634.16989@news.acns.nwu.edu> drmax@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
(Marianna Max) writes:
> Several days ago I read that two small planes collided (at about 1000'
> elevation) over Santa Paula airport (65 miles north of LA). The airport is
> reported to be privately owned and without a tower. One of the planes (Cessna
> 182 piloted by William Lewis Clark) crashed into two house (which burned).
> The pilot of that plane survived the crash but failed to get out of the 
> plane before it was engulfed in flames (according to a witness on the
> scene). The other plane (Cessna 152) was landed safely although it reportedly 
> had sustained alot of damage. The pilot was not identified in the news
> report. No one in the houses were injured although the entire neighborhood
> was evacuated due to fear of damage to natural gas lines. According to FAA
> and NTSB investigators both planes were making a westerly approach to land
> at the time of the collision.
>
> Anyone else heard anymore about this? The news report stressed that the
> problem was the uncoordinated airport in a residential neighborhood.

Marianna (and other readers) --

(1)  Uncontrolled (not "uncoordinated") airports make up the majority of
     landing facilities in this country.  In 1990, there were:

	17,490 aircraft landing facilities, of which
	 5,078 (29%) were publicly owned and
	12,412 (71%) were privately owned

	Of the total,
	 5,589 (32%) are public use facilites and
	11,901 (68%) are limited use facilities

	Only 680 of these airports are served by airlines -- indeed, only
	402 airports are served by _scheduled_ airlines.

	Only 691 U.S. airports have towers.  (For statistics buffs,
	432 are VFR towers, 255 are IFR towers, and 4 are TRACON
	Towers.  I have no idea what that means.)

	This means that 96% of the landing facilities (88% of the
	public use airports) in the U.S. are uncontrolled airports.
	And most towers, by the way, don't operate 24 hours per day --
	tower-controlled airports become uncontrolled airports when the
	tower is closed.

(2)  There is nothing inherently unsafe about uncontrolled airports.
     Indeed, probably as many accidents happen at controlled airports
     as do at uncontrolled airports.  There are specific flight
     procedures which pilots are trained to perform when approaching an
     uncontrolled airport.

(3)  Santa Paula is a public use airport, owned and operated by the Santa
     Paula Airport Association.  It's actually a moderately busy small
     field, with a thriving group of aircraft builders and restorers, as
     well as a substantial interest in aerobatics on the field.  Many of
     the people who live near the airport do so because they very much want
     to live there!

(4)  Midair collisions are incredibly rare, but they do happen.  (People
     are also killed by falling refrigerators.  This is incredibly rare,
     but it does happen.)

(5)  It's unfortunate that one of the airplanes came to earth in a
     residential neigborhood.  This is even more rare than a midair
     collision.  Yes, it happens, but very, very infrequently.  (Houses are
     destroyed by exploding refrigerators.  This is incredibly rare, but it
     does happen.)

(6)  News reports on general aviation accidents are notoriously inaccurate.
     The news media is in the business of attracting viewers, selling
     papers, and selling ads.  Unfortunately, technical accuracy and
     reporting in proportion is difficult, and doesn't sell very well.
     Why didn't your local news media report on a random car crash which
     caused two houses to be engulfed in flames somewhere in the country?
     Because aviation accidents sell.  Sigh.

OK?

						Geoff