Pilots perform evasive manoeuvres to avoid mid-air collision east of Windsor
A pair of pilots needed to perform evasive manoeuvres to avoid a mid-air collision while flying in airspace near Windsor, according to a safety report submitted to Transport Canada.
One of the planes was a small corporate jet flying at high speed toward a privately registered small propeller plane, a Piper-PA-28.
The planes came within approximately 150 metres vertically and 1.5 kilometres horizontally, according to the incident report.
A stock photo shows a similar plane to the style involved in this incident report landing at the Windsor airport. (CBC News)
This happened on Sept. 22 and was reported in the Transport Canada's Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS) on Dec. 7.
The pilot flying the Piper plane had left the Windsor airport for an instrument training flight and was flying east of Belle River.
The jet was spotted on a path toward collision from behind and travelling at high speed before evasive manoeuvres were performed, according to the occurrence summary filed in the report.
The jet headed north and the Piper changed its altitude to avoid each other.
The propeller plane returned to its training flight and landed at the Windsor airport without any further incident.
CBC News has asked for details from Transport Canada, the Transportation Safety Board and Windsor airport.
This story will be updated if they respond to interview requests and are able to provide more information.
CADORS reports, which contain preliminary data, are filed whenever a pilot, crew member or air traffic controller experiences a serious aviation incident.
This event was filed under the category of Airprox, TCAS alert, loss of separation/(near) midair collisions.
Airprox is an aviation term where a pilot or air traffic controller believes the relative position and speed of two aircraft are unsafe.
A TCAS occurs when the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System is triggered.
The term "loss of separation" is used when the minimum vertical and horizontal positions of aircraft is breached which could result in a mid-air collision.
A search of open data shows returns 30 CADORS reports filed to Transport Canada since 2010 under the same category with Windsor's airport selected as the occurrence location.
