A San Diego-based aviation expert describes the impact of a midair collision between a twin jet engine Sabreliner and a single engine prop driven Cessna 172.
“It would be like a sports car hitting a much slower vehicle,” Glen Winn said.
The two planes collided Sunday northeast of Brown Field Municipal Airport killing five people.
Federal investigators will spend Monday looking for evidence in the debris field which stretches more than a mile.
Without survivors, investigators will have to rely on debris to determine the trajectory of the planes and just how the planes hit.
“There was very traumatic collision factors when you have scattering of airplane parts that I saw pictorially. I don't see how you could survive that,” Winn said.
According to trade data the Sabreliner is a mid-sized business jet. There are also military versions of this plane. The Navy uses it as a radar training plane called the T39D.
Local
Manufacturer specs indicate the Sabreliner is 46 feet long and can travel at 500 miles per hour.
The Cessna is almost half its size and travels at a third of that speed.
Winn named three things that are important for the FAA to know before determining the cause of the collision - difference of speed, pilot attentiveness and pilot experience.
Further differences in each plane's design could have obstructed a pilot's view. The Cessna has a parosol wing configuration; the jet has low wings.
Winn says that could explain why, at such a critical time as landing, the pilots did not see each other.
“You're super alert and in this case, as I understand it, there was another person or two in the aircraft so everybody be eyes on,” Winn said.
NTSB and FAA investigatiors will try and find any communications between pilots.
There were conflicting reports on whether the air traffic control tower at Brown Field was open at the time of the incident. However, an airport spokesperson told NBC 7 Monday that tower was open and staffed when yesterday's collision occurred.
