Planes in 15-30m near miss over reef
From ninemsn.com.au:
A cargo plane and a single-engine Cessna aircraft almost crashed over the Great Barrier Reef because a pilot was busy filling in paperwork, a report has found.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) on Wednesday released a report into an incident involving a Dornier Werke DO228-202 cargo plane and a Cessna T210M aircraft in far north Queensland on April 25 last year.
Just before noon on that day the pilots of the Dornier - which was on its way to Cairns from Horn Island - sighted the Cessna at the same altitude approaching from the opposite direction while flying over Princess Charlotte Bay.
The Dornier immediately climbed and turned to the left to avoid the approaching aircraft.
But the Cessna still passed between 15 and 30 metres below the right wing of the Dornier.
The report found the Cessna pilot had been filling in paperwork about his engine's performance at the time, which "reduced his ability to see and avoid the Dornier".
"The action by the Dornier pilot to climb and turn the Dornier to the left averted a possible collision with the Cessna," the report said.
The report found neither the pilots of the Dornier nor the Cessna pilot had "any awareness of the proximity of the other aircraft".
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