Mid-Air Collision Risk And Areas Of High Benefit For Traffic Alerting

Abstract

Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) will be the basis of the future surveillance system in the US as well as many other countries. One way to create incentives for users to equip with the required ADS-B avionics is to create and implement ADS-B applications that are of high value to the operators. One such application is the airborne traffic alerting application named Traffic Situation Awareness with Alerting (TSAA)6. As a first step in the development of this application, an analysis of ten years of NTSB mid-air collision reports was conducted to identify areas of high mid-air collision risk. Similarly, ten years worth of ASRS and NMACS near mid-air collision reports were also analyzed. The airport environment is where most mid-air collisions occurred (59% of NTSB reports) and most near mid-air collisions were reported (64% of ASRS reports and 47% of NMACS reports). As such, most benefit from traffic alerting can be gained from alerts in the airport environment. Encounters between Part 121 aircraft and General Aviation were most often reported between a cruising General Aviation aircraft and a Part 121 aircraft transitioning through that same altitude. GA/Part 121 encounters make up 14% NMACS as well as ASRS reports.