Close call between commercial plane and medical helicopter reported at Pittsburgh International Airport

By Carlos Cristian Flores

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    PITTSBURGH (WTAE) — Back in March, a commercial airplane was landing at Pittsburgh International Airport when it nearly missed a potential collision with a medical helicopter on the runway.

According to a report filed through the Aviation Safety Reporting System, the pilot of the commercial plane said a medical helicopter was cleared by air traffic control to fly in front of and below the plane as it was making its final descent.

“It may have been a little bit too aggressive of an attempt by air traffic, but I wouldn’t tag it as unsafe,” said Patrick Hempen, former director of aviation accident investigations for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Hempen, the near miss had clear differences between this situation and what happened at Reagan Washington National Airport in January.

“That was a case where the aircraft had not identified it. And so when the helicopter said, yeah, I see the traffic tower missing, he was looking at the wrong track. So they were not seeing each other. So neither airplane saw each other in. They climb. This one is different and that they were both saw each other,” Hempen said.

According to the ASRS, this near miss was one of 26 in the three months after the incident in DC with more than 40% of these situations involving a helicopter.

The report would go on to raise concerns over the decision by air traffic control to have the helicopter cross over like that. However, it also pointed out that the pilot may have relied too much on their traffic alert and collision avoidance system, or TCAS.

“You need to look at the TCAS, of course, but you need to look out the window and just keep looking for any kind of traffic or anything that may pop up,” Hempen said.

Hempen believes the near miss should not be a cause for concern and highlighted how the situation was handled after shows the systems in place are working.

“But I think once the event transpired and the helicopter goes underneath the arriving airliner, sounds to me like the airliner will go, oh, that scared us. So we’re going to write this report, which is good. You know, they’re trying to make the world safer,” Hempen said.

We have reached out to the FAA for further information, and we are waiting to hear back.

The National Transportation Safety Board says there are no investigations involving a loss of separation incident in March in Pennsylvania.

An official with Pittsburgh International Airport provided the following statement:

“Air Traffic Control is part of the Federal Aviation Administration. Any questions regarding ATC should be directed to the FAA.”

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