A real-time aircraft collision replay
This afternoon brings the tragic news of the deaths of two women in a light aircraft collision over Casula in Sydney’s west. While it is too early to say what caused the collision, or who was responsible, the Sydney Airport WebTrak data service – launched just last week- can provide a real-time reconstruction of the incident from radar data.
Here are pictures from the WebTrak service, but you can see the replay yourself by visiting this WebTrak page and setting the date and time to 18/12/2008 11:22am. The location is over Casula, pinpointed on this Google map.
11:22:05am: The Cessna, circled in red, and second plane over Horningsea Park
11:23:04 - The second plane, a Liberty XL2 training flight (circled) - executes a left-hand bank
11:23:26 - The two aircraft converge over the M7. At this point, the Cessna is at 488m altitude, and the Liberty at 508m.
11:23:44 - The two aircraft approach, with the Cessna at 507m and the Liberty a 513m.
11:23:52 - the two aircraft collide, with the Cessna spinning out of control and crashing.
Edit: Looks like I’m not the only one to realise this data exists: Website captures Bankstown midair plane crash. They even have a video replay.