ANDERSON — For small airfields like the Marion Municipal Airport where a two-plane crash claimed the lives of two Elwood firefighters Monday, it’s not uncommon for pilots to communicate among themselves to coordinate landings instead of contacting a central control tower.
The crash between a Cessna 150 carrying Elwood residents Kyle Hibst and David Wittkamper and a Cessna 525 Citation Jet is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. Initial reports indicate the Cessna 150 was taking off and clipped the tail of the Cessna 252 Citation Jet as it was landing.
Despite what many nonpilots likely envision when imagining the cockpit of a plane on approach to land or take off, in all but 10 airports in Indiana pilots aren’t tracked on radar or walked in by a ground-based air traffic control person watching for potential collisions and calling out instructions.
In fact, for the several dozen non-controlled airports in the state that don’t have designated air traffic controllers, it’s up to pilots to work with each other to prevent the exact type of crash that occurred Monday.
Brian McMillen, longtime pilot and director of the Anderson Municipal Airport, said most pilots indicate their heading, altitude and speed to each other through an inplane radio over a common traffic advisory frequency. The distinct frequency is individualized for each airport or landing strip and goes out to all aircraft on the frequency in the area.
“(On landing) you are supposed to call when you are 10 miles out, then as you get closer … at 5 miles, when you get into the traffic pattern you call where you are, the cross wind, then your final approach when you are right off the end of the runway,” McMillen said.
Conversely, as a plane is preparing to take off, the pilot will let other pilots know when they will be on the active runway and throughout the entire takeoff process until they reach cruising altitude.
If there are other pilots in the area, they will answer, indicating they heard a pilot’s calls and respond saying where they are and where they are heading.
However, though this is standard protocol for pilots flying short routes to noncommercial airports, McMillen said all of the communication isn’t required.
“Pilots are not required to call in when they come into an uncontrolled field,” he said.
McMillen was quick to add there’s no way, at this point, to know whether the two aircraft pilots were communicating at the time of the crash.
For him, the crash highlights just how important keeping the control tower at the Anderson Municipal Airport has been throughout the years after commercial service in Anderson ended.
“The very nice thing about having a control tower is the safety issue … having an extra set of eyes in the tower to watch for that kind of thing is great,” he said.
Still, even without a controller watching over each of the pilots, McMillen said he’s stunned the crash happened at all.
“It really works well,” he said of taking off and landing at non-controlled airports and using the radio correctly. “I have no idea how this could have happened on a clear day.”