Collision over Edison

The collision over Edison was an aviation accident that occurred on Saturday, 9 January 1971 in the sky over the town of Edison (New Jersey), when an American Airlines Boeing 707—323, on approach to Newark airport, collided in mid-air with a training Cessna 150. Two people died as a result of the accident — everyone on board the Cessna. The Boeing managed to land safely at the airport.

Crash

The Boeing was operating scheduled passenger flight AA30 from San Francisco (California) to Newark (New Jersey). At 11:51, with 7 crew members and 14 passengers on board, flight 30 took off from San Francisco airport. The flight was conducted under radar control and proceeded without deviations as far as Newark. While making its approach to the airport, the aircraft was passing a height of 4 thousand feet (1220 metres) when the New York air traffic control centre instructed it to switch to Newark Approach. Meanwhile, 6 miles south of Newark airport was a Cessna 150 training aircraft of the Linden Flight Services, Inc. flight school. It had taken off from Linden airfield at 15:30 and was now conducting a training flight under visual flight rules. In its left seat sat a trainee, and in the right an instructor pilot. Linden airport had no control tower, so the crew of the training aircraft transmitted no messages to the ground. Nor was a flight plan filed, but at that time this was normal if a training flight was to be conducted in visual meteorological conditions. Training flights took place in a special training area located west of Linden, and the maximum flight altitude was set at 3 thousand feet (914 metres). It should be noted that the boundaries of this training flight area had not been reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

According to the weather report for 16:29, over Newark airport there was broken cloud at a height of 3300 feet and overcast at a height of 8000 feet, wind 360° 7 knots, visibility 8 miles. However, according to the pilots of aircraft in the area, the cloud height varied from two to three and a half thousand feet, and visibility below the clouds varied from one to three miles, near the ground itself occasionally clearing to eight miles. The Cessna's crew did not request weather data at any time during the flight.

At 16:15:57 the Newark Approach controller cleared flight 30 to descend to a height of 3 thousand feet (914 metres) on a heading of 160°. At 16:19 flight 30 was instructed to turn right onto a heading of 180°. As the controller later explained, this was necessary to maintain the required spacing from the preceding aircraft on approach. Then at 16:20:05 the controller transmitted: American 30, aircraft at 12 o'clock less than a mile, heading north-east. But at 16:20:11 the Boeing replied that they did not see the other aircraft. Then the following conversation took place in the airliner's cockpit: Well, it sure is overcast around here. Guys, I think we'll get visual somewhere about a thousand feet lower, but I hope nobody…. Suddenly the crew saw ahead through the haze the silhouette of a small aircraft, and at 16:20:25 the sound of an impact was heard, after which at 16:20:30 the ground was told: We hit that airplane. American 30. At a height of 2975 feet (907 metres), the Boeing, flying on a heading of 178° at a speed of 176 knots, overtook the Cessna and struck it with the left part of the wing outboard of engine No. 1 (the leftmost). The impact separated the small aircraft's stabilizers, after which the uncontrollable machine fell to the ground and crashed, and both pilots on board died. The airliner's engine No. 1 nacelle and the wing leading edge in the area of that engine were damaged, but the pilots managed to maintain control and at 16:38 landed at Newark airport, with no one on board injured. The Cessna's right stabilizer fell and lodged on the roof of a house 18 miles south-west of Newark airport.