3 US Airways Commuter Jets Avoid Last-Second Collision Near Washington, D.C

[joeyb747]

http://gma.yahoo.com/3-us-airways-commuter-jets-avoid-last-second-074048482--abc-news-topstories.html

[VictorK]

Just cause this isn't the only reference I've seen to this being a three-plane accident...


(http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-three-plane-crash-reagan-national-airport-20120802,0,1480170.story)


What? Was the second departure going to hit the flaming wreckage of the other two, or did they depart two in formation? 

[flyflyfly]

Here's a video of the incident with ATC and radar:


FAA press release:
http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=13794

[BLS2001]

Can someone in ATC explain the blue dotted line. Doesn't seem to have any shape. The green half circle i assume is the airspace?

[sykocus]

Can someone in ATC explain the blue dotted line. Doesn't seem to have any shape. The green half circle i assume is the airspace?

The blue line appears to be the flight path of the "brickyard 3329" which they decided to plot. The circle appears to be a range ring of about 20 miles centered on the airport. It maybe an airspace boundary but my guess is it's just there as a reference point. The video was rendered by feeding archived radar data though some software which recreates the look of the radar scope. It's not a direct recording of the/a radar scope per se. So there are elements that are shown that may or may not have been on the actual radar scope at the time of the incident.