Close encounter

SAIPAN – Military and civilian aircraft came disturbingly close in the skies between Saipan and Tinian in the Northern Marianas last week.

According to documents obtained by the Saipan Tribune detailing the incident, two unidentified military C-130s came directly at and passed unannounced within 90 metres of a Star Marianas twin-engine passenger plane.

The Star Marianas pilot was flying about 1.6km offshore flying into Tinian at the standard 4500 metres.

“I suddenly spotted one C-130 coming directly at me from the direction of Northfield at my altitude and definitely within Delta airspace.”

The C-130 was followed by another C-130, which was slightly off the lead C-130’s left wing, the pilot said.

Both planes had nose-high altitude and were climbing in the pilot’s direction, he stated.

The C-130s came directly through the standard altitude and routing flown by commercial planes between the islands.

“I called tower and reported that a C-130 was coming at me and stated it passed within about 300 feet of my aircraft and asked if they knew about that aircraft being there. The tower stated that they had not known and that the aircraft had just called them,” the pilot said.

The pilot noted that military aircraft often use ultra-high frequencies, or UHF frequencies, that civilian aircraft do not have. This makes civilian aircraft unable to hear communication from military aircraft when they use these frequencies.

The pilot said that if the Saipan tower’s comments regarding the communication with the military aircraft was correct, both C-130s had violated the requirement to establish communication with the tower “prior to entering the Delta airspace, as my aircraft and theirs were clearly inside the Delta airspace when the incident occurred.”

Star Marianas president Shaun Christian confirmed the details the pilot had reported.

He said they look to the Federal Aviation Administration to see what the next course of action is, as they had reported the incident to the FAA office in Guam as a “near midair collision,” or NMAC.

NMAC is defined as “an incident associated with the operation of an aircraft in which a possibility of collision occurs as a result of proximity of less than 500 feet to another aircraft,” or a report that stated a collision hazard existed between two or more planes.

Christian said the military aircraft so far had not been unidentified. He said the planes were grey coloured.

Christian called the incident a “communication problem,” as it was unclear whether the military had duly informed the Saipan tower of its approach into civilian airspace.

This air incident comes at a time when both Saipan and Tinian airport activity continues to increase, according to Star Marianas.

Saipan averages 298 flights per day, and Tinian averages 137 flights per day, for a combined 350 flights

Adding military into that airspace, which is already nearly saturated at times, is creating unacceptable levels of risk, especially given the limited resources provided to air traffic control, the newspaper said.