Military Pilots Study Jet Collision Alarms

The Air Force resumed training flights over the East and Gulf coasts after a four-day suspension that included a quick course in the dangers of shadowing airliners with sensitive collision avoidance systems. One of the things investigators discovered was that many commercial planes’ alerts can be triggered by fighter jets at distances the military pilots may not be counting on, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said. In two cases last week, collision alarms sounded in airliners when jet fighters came too close, causing one airline pilot to maneuver so sharply that three people were thrown to the floor. In the other case the pilot went into a descent to avoid the military planes. In two other cases alarms did not sound.