F-16, Small Plane Involved in Midair Collision Over South Carolina, FAA Says

[Contrary1]

Not too many details yet...

"A military fighter jet crashed into a Cessna flight midair about 11 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina this morning, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The condition of the pilots of the planes is unknown at this time. There have been no reports confirming any other passengers.

In a statement, the FAA said the collision involved a Cessna C 150 and an F-16 fighter aircraft at around 11 a.m.

A defense department official confirmed to ABC News that the pilot of the F-16 ejected safely. The plane and pilot came from Shaw Air Force Base, roughly 100 miles north west of Charleston."

https://gma.yahoo.com/f-16-small-plane-involved-midair-collision-over-162458929--abc-news-topstories.html

[HooptieWagon]

1. IDK who's at fault...

But it doesn't seem correct for those two planes to be sharing the same airspace.

[Travis_0004]

3. They normally don't

A small Cessna would only fly at around 14k feet, and a military plane can fly much higher, but planes have to land. I fly and see military aircraft all the time. They are all following air traffic control, and 99% of the time everything is safe. I trust the training and air worthiness of a military aircraft over a lot of civilian planes out there.

Without knowing all the details, I would have to fault the military pilot at least somewhat. With radar (or TAS), they should know about the other pilot from a few miles away. I've had military planes fly close to me (obviously nowhere need a collision course) and TAS starts going nuts. You can't miss it. Its always funny when you see a plane approaching, knowing that TAS will go off soon waiting to see the reaction of the people in the back of the plane who it wakes up when the speaker blast "TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC" at full blast.

Either way, I'm sure all the details will come out.

[Adrahil]

2. There is a restricted use airspace in that area.....

so perhaps either the Cessna was where it should not have been or the Falcon drifted out of its operational space.