https://avherald.com/h?article=4e74b6e5 The Aviation Herald Last Update: Thursday, May 13th 2021 13:10Z 26737 Articles available Events from Mar 23rd 1994 to May 13th 2021 www.avherald.com Incidents and News in Aviation Next Sort list List Earlier Next Later List by: by currently Filter: Crashes Accidents Incidents News Reports [ ] search Article Article Occurrence sorted by On On On On On date Update --------------------------------------------------------------------- [INS::INS] [INS::INS] The Aviation Herald Apps Android and iOS Accident: Key Lime SW4 and private aircraft at Denver on May 12th 2021, midair collision AVHAPP on Android and iOS Support The Aviation Herald By Simon Hradecky, created Wednesday, May 12th 2021 17:39Z, last updated Wednesday, May 12th 2021 21:34Z one time Support The Aviation Herald A Key Lime Air Swearingen SA-226TC Metro II, registration N280KL performing flight KG-970 from Salida,CO to Denver Centennial,CO (USA) Monthly support with one crew, was on a visual approach to Centennial's runway 17L 1 EUR/month cleared for the approach and was descending through 6400 feet about Monthly Support The Aviation Herald 3nm north of the threshold runway 17L at about 11:24L (16:24Z). Interview: A private Cirrus SR-22, registration N416DJ with two people on board, The human factor named "Simon was cleared for a visual approach to runway 17R and was advised of Hradecky" and the team of man and the traffic landing on the parallel runway. The Cirrus descended machine through 6400 feet about 3nm north of the threshold of runway 17R, but overshot the centerlines of both runways 17R and 17L. The two aircraft collided, the Cirrus apparently struck across through the fuselage of the Metroliner just above the wings taking out the whole cabin section at that point. The Metro crew declared emergency on tower frequency reporting their right hand engine had failed and reported they saw another aircraft on parachute going down. After landing the crew advised, it had definitely been a mid air collision. The Cirrus pilot activated their parachute and landed in a field nearby with no injuries. The crew of the Metroliner managed to land the aircraft at Centennial Airport. The Cirrus with two people on board ended up about 2.7nm north of runway 17L in the area of the Cherry Creek Reservoir. The local Sheriff's Office gave the location of the Cirrus between E. Bellevue Ave and S. Cherry Creek Drive. The Sheriffs Office stated, the other aircraft was carrying cargo only and was flown by a single pilot. There were no injuries. The NTSB have opened an investigation and are dispatching investigators on site stating: "NTSB is investigating the May 12, 2021, mid-air collision involving a Metroliner & a Cirrus near Denver, Colorado. No injuries reported in connection with the collision. Initial report indicates collision happened as airplanes were landing. The NTSB will travel to the scene." Metars: KAPA 121753Z VRB03KT 10SM FEW050 FEW080 12/M01 A3027 RMK AO2 SLP241 T01221011 10122 20000 57004= KAPA 121653Z 00000KT 10SM FEW080 FEW140 10/M01 A3027 RMK AO2 SLP249 T01001006= KAPA 121553Z 15003KT 10SM FEW080 FEW140 08/M01 A3027 RMK AO2 SLP250 T00781011= KAPA 121453Z 24005KT 10SM FEW080 FEW140 07/00 A3028 RMK AO2 SLP255 T00670000 50003= KAPA 121353Z VRB03KT 10SM FEW080 FEW140 FEW220 04/M01 A3028 RMK AO2 SLP261 T00391006= KAPA 121253Z 21004KT 10SM FEW140 FEW220 02/00 A3028 RMK AO2 SLP265 ACSL DSNT N T00220000= KAPA 121153Z 22003KT 10SM FEW220 00/M02 A3027 RMK AO2 SLP268 70015 T00001022 10022 21006 53003= https://flightaware.com/live/flight/LYM970/history/20210512/1545Z/ KANK/KAPA https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N416DJ/history/20210512/1534Z/ KAPA/L%2039.62003%20-104.85175 The Metroliner after landing: The Metroliner after landing The Metroliner after landing The Cirrus on the ground: The Cirrus on the ground The Cirrus on the ground after the collision (Photo: South Metro Fire Rescue): The Cirrus on the ground after the collision (Photo: South Metro Fire Rescue) Map (Graphics: AVH/Google Earth): Map (Graphics: AVH/Google Earth) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Reader Comments: (the comments posted below do not reflect the view of The Aviation Herald but represent the view of the various posters) --------------------------------------------------------------------- ADS-B In could prevent accidents like this By RICHARD F HEALING on Thursday, May 13th 2021 21:57Z ADS-B(In) is NOT mandated by FAA; but many pilots have them (more than 100,000 ADS-B In systems in use, paid for by pilots who prefer situational awareness (SA) over waiting for ATC to warn of an impending midair). Adding ADS-B (In) to an ADS-B (Out) system should cost very little....8 years ago, R Cubed Engineering proved effective collision avoidance, with automatic collision avoidance maneuvers input to autopilot on Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Flight tests at Army Proving Ground in Yuma, AZ ran 44 different collision scenarios - 100% successful avoidance with direct inputs to autopilot.....but the alerts to a pilot would have effectively avoided collisions like this one! Avoidable! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Too Much Speed By Erik on Thursday, May 13th 2021 19:20Z When on base for the runway, a normal SR22 is crusing at 90 knots. This plane was at 165 knots. That extra 75 knots makes it hard to make a tight turn. --------------------------------------------------------------------- By Curtis P on Thursday, May 13th 2021 15:50Z Try 2, links not allowed, so cut/paste into the browser. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ADS-B Tracks By Curtis P on Thursday, May 13th 2021 15:49Z Here are the two aircraft's ADS-B tracks including impact location. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Location By Ben on Thursday, May 13th 2021 14:45Z I dug around to try and narrow down the landing location. Based on a Denver Channel video and the photos above, it appears to be next to the Vista trail, near 39.6197, -104.8513 The first frames of the video show a house with a fence in a field (39.6190, -104.8536) and the Cheery Creek Dam spillway (39.6505, -104.8541) Other houses and trees aren't visible, which means it was filmed from the house at (39.6149, -104.8515). (You can play with the Measure Distance tool in Google Maps to see lines of sight) As it descends, you can see cars on Belleview / Peoria in the background. The plane's clearly larger than them. That restricts the landing site to a pretty small area near the Vista trail. I was mostly curious how close the landing site was to housing and other people - within 2000'. Source is The Denver Channel: "2 planes collide mid-air over Cherry Creek State Park; no reported injuries" --------------------------------------------------------------------- @Barry By Florian on Thursday, May 13th 2021 14:40Z @Barry: I was only once loading a metro liner cargo at Zurich. There was no door between cabin and cockpit, because it is pretty narrow. Also no toillet or galley. They just had their back packs with them. (on the flight I loaded) But I am sure, he did not have time to look back, with one engine out on short final with visual approach. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Aftward visibility on the Metroliner? By Barry on Thursday, May 13th 2021 13:04Z I'm wondering if the Metroliner pilot knew how badly the aircraft was damaged? Can anyone say with authority how much of that damage would be visible from the left seat? As it was, on final, and having an engine-out casualty to deal with, my bet is that there was not time to be looking behind. Is the metroliner big enough to have a bulkhead between the flightdeck and passenger cabin? Could it be that only after landing that the pilot realized the true nature of the emergency? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Lessons? By Commish190 on Thursday, May 13th 2021 12:58Z It has always seemed to me that inexperienced pilots should avoid busier or difficult airports. Common sense. Unfortunately common sense is dying in America. Perhaps we should grade airports and require certain minimum experience to land there? Regarding all the snarky comments, the only significance of the plane being a Cirrus is the fact the CAPS system functioned perfectly and saved the lives of two people, including the inexperienced pilot who was still trained well enough to deploy it quickly. Thankfully he won t have to live his life with the guilt of killing the extremely skilled Metroliner pilot. To lump all Cirrus pilots with this guy is silly. We should be asking why haven t other manufacturers included this option, like airbags in cars. --------------------------------------------------------------------- By Cirrus cowboys on Thursday, May 13th 2021 12:31Z No one is claiming the parachute is bad in itself. It's the psychological issues it causes by instilling a feeling of invincibility. Look through the list of chute deployments and time and time again it's a pilot getting themselves into a stupid situation. If you count the total accident rate per hours flying it blows away the C150 and that one is flown far more often by students! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cirrus parachute By RustyToad on Thursday, May 13th 2021 12:02Z I find it slightly depressing that the only comments regarding the parachute system here are sarcastic, sneering and derogatory. Yes, in this case, it appears likely the Cirrus pilot caused the accident. But he, and his passenger, are still alive, presumably purely because of this system. Shouldn't we as aviation professionals be praising such an astonishing system, encouraged to see it operating exactly as designed, and keen to see similar systems installed on other aircraft? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Camo Green By Chelsea on Thursday, May 13th 2021 11:27Z My first thoughts when seeing the picture of the Metroliner was that it is painted in a good shade of Camouflage Green. . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- By Cirrus cowboys on Thursday, May 13th 2021 10:38Z Cirrus own the reputation they have. Inattentive nitwits who feel confident and safe because they have the magic handle. --------------------------------------------------------------------- By (anonymous) on Thursday, May 13th 2021 09:58Z Holy Luck Stars, Batman!! Anyone who s ever said anything bad about the Metroliner...you have the floor! Respect --------------------------------------------------------------------- Happy outcome! By Martine on Thursday, May 13th 2021 09:23Z All their guardian angels must have been on overtime that day! --------------------------------------------------------------------- @Alex SR22 By Eric Rokke on Thursday, May 13th 2021 08:30Z Alex SR-22, I found and read actual article you referenced. Please note the article says the 2012 Cirrus SR-22 was equipped with the following. Innovative Garmin products include the Perspective avionics suite with 12-inch displays, integral alphanumeric keypad, the industry-leading GFC 700 dual-channel digital autopilot, active traffic, synthetic vision, enhanced vision system, and envelope and hypoxia protection via Garmin's ESP system. Active traffic is NOT TCAS. Cirrus does not offer TCAS in its SR series aircraft. It never has. If you d like to verify that for yourself, you can download their Garmin Perspective manual and read it. The Traffic Avoidance Systems they offer are much cheaper and rely on different technology than TCAS. Many people in the GA community (including photo caption editors at Flying Magazine) do not understand the differences between Traffic Avoidance Systems. They are not all created equal, and they certainly aren t all TCAS. --------------------------------------------------------------------- By (anonymous) on Thursday, May 13th 2021 07:11Z I live on the south side of KAPA right under the departure/arrival path which happens to be one of the top 3 busiest general aviation airports in the nation. Lots of student pilots, but lots of jets and turboprops as well. Thankfully on the south side, they pay very close attention when joining up for dual approaches, but the north side can be a bit dicey like what happened in this situation. That being said, I am thrilled that everyone came out alive. God bless. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Procedures.... By Roger Wolff on Thursday, May 13th 2021 06:45Z > much more procedural separation is necessary > when operating arrivals on both runways simultaneously. Did THIS cirrus get notified: "traffic for the parallel"? The other one did. Were they told not to overshoot because of traffic on the parallel? OK. So they did get told about the landing-on-the-parallel plane. But they had two planes to look for. They likely forgot about the second one, or forgot about their turn while looking for it. They were told to follow the other one and that's mostly it. In this situation where they might turn into base at the time someone is passing for landing on the parallel, wouldn't it be better to call their base to make sure they do this "high closing speed" maneuver before or after the passing of the plane on the parallel? This is one of those cases where the risk of something going horribly wrong is big enough that the improved safety outweighs the slight reduction in airport capacity. --------------------------------------------------------------------- @Kris By Professional Armchair Pilot on Thursday, May 13th 2021 06:43Z Looks like just the SR22 landing gear went thru the fuselage. He was probably just a couple of feet above the aircraft but low enough for the landing gear to hit. Regards, Professional Armchair Pilot --------------------------------------------------------------------- By (anonymous) on Thursday, May 13th 2021 06:19Z Look everybody,I got my hands on a Cirrus, hold my beer,I'll show you what I saw on movies,you push the throttle and left,right,up, down,sharp right...oopsie daisy...who put a big green tree in my way....eject,eject...darn,why is it so quiet...s***, my wife is gonna kill me :-) Well,thank God they all made it out alive, great job by the Metro pilot and aircraft constructor, Cirrus pilot will probably fly only on IL-2 simulator...but any landing you can walk away from is a good landing! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Physics of it? By Kris Wetton on Thursday, May 13th 2021 06:15Z I can't get my head around what part of the Cirrus hit the Metro, how do you end up with damage like that and nothing visible (from these images) on the Cirrus? I was assuming the fuse break was when it came down, but even if that was due to impact I still can't reconcile what part hit?? --------------------------------------------------------------------- @Erik Rokke By Alex SR-22 on Thursday, May 13th 2021 05:07Z FlyingMag article from 2012 states "The Cirrus SR22 s is the world s most advanced single-engine panel, with satcom, EVS, syn viz, TAWS, TCAS, ADS-B, envelope protection and extensive vertical navigation." The one I flew also had TCAS, so not sure you can make the definitive statement that they don't come with it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cirrus SR-22s do not have TCAS By Eric Rokke on Thursday, May 13th 2021 02:27Z Just to clarify...I currently own an SR-22. I d be shocked if there was an SR-22 flying equipped with TCAS. ADSB yes. --------------------------------------------------------------------- luck A.N. Onymous By See and Listen to Video, Audio on Thursday, May 13th 2021 00:17Z There is Tower audio telling the Cirrus NOT to overshoot, then realises the worst has happened and advises Emergency services are being deployed presumably after seeing the Parachute deployment. ADS tracking in another video shows huge overshoot, while Metroliner is flying straight extended Final. Major fuselage damage from above on the Metroliner clearly points to Cirrus wing impact from above. Not sure how any of these incontrovertible visual, aural facts show untoward bias. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucky By A.N. Onymous on Wednesday, May 12th 2021 23:55Z Presumably the main fuselage structure and control runs to the tail are in the bottom of the Metro, so it's a good thing the collision hit the top. I can't be the only one who finds it alarming that some people claiming to be pilots can post incoherent nonsense. It's not unreasonable to hope that pilots are better-educated and can think critically and analytically before they hit send. Flame away, but you know I'm right. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cirrus TCAS By Andy Borgmann on Wednesday, May 12th 2021 23:51Z You are correct that it is only TCAS-1, with no RA capability. But all Cirruses have the option (SR20, SR22), and they have from (almost) the beginning. I have never flown an SR20 or an SR22 that didn't have TCAS and I have been flying them since 2009. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Good to be Paranoid By Old Guy on Wednesday, May 12th 2021 23:42Z Have flow many times into Centennial Airport in Corporate jets to light pistons. The approach from the north landing has dense population, big Lake, freeways, numerous officeSkyscrapers , etc. There is a LOT of GA traffic here under the approach airspace for Denver International. Situational awareness is critical- today s weather severe clear, 70 miles visibility, NO excuse for not Seeing / Clearing. Bet the Cirrus was coming in hot, yanking, banking, no attention to other traffic, skidded over with a high energy turn . Tower at APA is very experienced handling traffic, but can t always predict moronic behaviour. The Cirrus pilot ought to get ticket yanked permanently if radar tracks show what we strongly suspect. Metroliner Pilot should get Air Medal for keeping composure AND controlled landing, immediate major Airline job flying 767/787 - SHE/ HE has earned it - no need to Interview! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Miracle, and eerily similar to Aloha's 737. By The Legacy on Wednesday, May 12th 2021 23:38Z Incredibly lucky the one pilot had a parachute, and the other had one heck of a tough airplane! That damage give me flashbacks to Aloha Airlines' 737 which had a similar roof failure, although for obviously different reasons. I think this is the first time I have ever heard of a mid-air Collision that resulted in no deaths and involved a transport category aircraft. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Adsb in By Jonathan on Wednesday, May 12th 2021 23:33Z ADSB in anyone? --------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm impressed By Yuppi-ye on Wednesday, May 12th 2021 23:12Z If you listen to the radio comms (there's a vid on yt already) Metroliner pilot cool as a cucumber despite the emergency. You'd think he'd had a small hiccup during his descent, certainly not the extent of damage shown in the pictures. Wow. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Repair it By KAP on Wednesday, May 12th 2021 23:07Z That SW4 should be repaired! 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