37000 Feet | Browse and search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System |
|
Attributes | |
ACN | 1555486 |
Time | |
Date | 201806 |
Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
Place | |
Locale Reference | NUQ.Airport |
State Reference | CA |
Environment | |
Flight Conditions | VMC |
Light | Daylight |
Aircraft 1 | |
Make Model Name | Small Aircraft |
Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
Flight Phase | Climb |
Route In Use | Vectors |
Flight Plan | None |
Person 1 | |
Function | Pilot Not Flying |
Qualification | Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Commercial |
Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 11 Flight Crew Total 296 Flight Crew Type 296 |
Person 2 | |
Function | Pilot Flying |
Qualification | Flight Crew Private |
Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 19 Flight Crew Total 285 Flight Crew Type 198 |
Events | |
Anomaly | Conflict NMAC |
Miss Distance | Horizontal 500 Vertical 100 |
Narrative:
We departed palo alto airport (pao) on a left downwind departure on a 160 magnetic heading. We were handed off to moffet tower (nuq) and checked in at 1;900 feet. Moffet tower instructed us to descend and maintain at or below 1;500 feet for traffic at 12 o'clock; 1.5 nm away. We acknowledged; and replied that we did not have the traffic in sight. As we began our descent out of 1;900 feet; we converged on a blue and white [aircraft] descending straight at us. The [aircraft] dove beneath our flight path and made a left turn (from their perspective) and we initiated a climb to avoid them. We believe the [aircraft] was on an instrument approach into san carlos airport (sql) and had received vectors for their initial approach. The [aircraft] appeared to have already descended below 2;000 feet before reaching their final approach point cuzup; which is why they converged on our position so rapidly.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Two GA pilots reported a NMAC while departing PAO.
Narrative: We departed Palo Alto Airport (PAO) on a left downwind departure on a 160 magnetic heading. We were handed off to Moffet Tower (NUQ) and checked in at 1;900 feet. Moffet Tower instructed us to descend and maintain at or below 1;500 feet for traffic at 12 o'clock; 1.5 nm away. We acknowledged; and replied that we did not have the traffic in sight. As we began our descent out of 1;900 feet; we converged on a blue and white [aircraft] descending straight at us. The [aircraft] dove beneath our flight path and made a left turn (from their perspective) and we initiated a climb to avoid them. We believe the [aircraft] was on an instrument approach into San Carlos Airport (SQL) and had received vectors for their initial approach. The [aircraft] appeared to have already descended below 2;000 feet before reaching their final approach point CUZUP; which is why they converged on our position so rapidly.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.