ASRS Reports

I believe the cause of this near mid air collision was the Tower Controller’s lack of situational awareness. I do not believe he knew we were both on the downwind until he made a mistake. There were two planes in the pattern and a small plane flying a practice approach inbound, as well as a jet inbound, which I believe led to task saturation for the controller and the loss of situational awareness.

This is a flight I have made multiple times and before the flight I updated my sectional chart and checked the airport NOTAMs before departure. At no point in that process did I realize a tower had been added to this airport.

Later in the day we found that our radio silence had rattled nerves and caused problems for the flight school. We spoke to the flight school manager and offered our apologies for causing a disruption.

Other planes begin yelling for me to go around.

I believe that “get-there-itis” (the airplane was due back at 0900 and I was worried about being late) tempted me to exit the runway while traveling a bit faster than I would normally do.

When I saw them in the left window, they were the same altitude less than a quarter mile turning towards us fast. They were in our blind spot as we were climbing (they were slightly higher). I cut power and did an emergency descent to the right to avoid getting hit.

The whole experience scared me, as at one point, I could not get out of the downdrafts. I thought we may have to land off airport as we were close to the ground.

The other pilot involved was extremely aggressive and seemingly maneuvered his plane in a way that did not promote safety. I would say that the aircraft was within 150 feet of my aircraft.

I had to turn around on the runway very quickly and get off as quick as I could to avoid a mid-air accident with a crop duster who took off from the middle of the field, without making radio calls, on a runway that the prevailing winds did not align with.