the 1960 crash over park slope replaces the grand canyon collision as the deadliest u.s. commercial aviation disaster to that point. to investigate the accident, the civil aeronautics board, the forerunner to the ntsb, uses flight data recorder, or black box technology, for the first time ever. the conclusion, united flight 826 proceeded beyond its clearance limit, or the place it was told to go into a holding pattern. its high rate of speed and the change of clearance or shortcut it was given by air traffic control are contributing factors. within three months, president kennedy establishes project beacon. the task force is mandated to review the country s aviation facilities and put together a long-range plan for the future of air traffic in the u.s. but there are more midair
contributing to the accident, says the report, air traffic control procedures, authorizing controllers to use visual separation when radar was available. the report notes that flight crews exercise a lower degree of vigilance in areas where they receive radar assistance. and it says controllers seem to similarly relax vigilance. this controller may have believed that the flight crew had a better grasp on the situation than he did. it could be days before the cleanup is complete. and in the words of one policeman, it will be years before this neighborhood is ever the same. after the psa crash, the faa stepped up efforts to improve separation of aircraft around the nation s busiest airports and to modernize collision avoidance technology. but again, change simply doesn t happen fast enough. eight years later, 1986, another sunny day over southern california, another jet, another
like building blocks, each midair collision has helped make the skies safer, so much safer, in fact, that according to an m.i.t. study, technology has advanced to the point where we can expect only one midair collision every 100 million flight hours. the last time two commercial jets collided over the u.s. was the 1960 accident above new york city. since then, there have been three more midair collisions, all involving one large aircraft and one small. in 1967, mary schulte s father is at the helm of a boeing 727 which collides with a twin cessna over north carolina, killing 82 people. two pilots show up at the front door, ring the doorbell and inform my mother that my
error, through a pilot making a mistake, but remember, there s avionics on board, particularly one called tcas, collision avoidance assistance. reporter: the faa has taken steps to prevent occurrences in the future but didn t say what the steps are. the faa also telling us an instructor was there at the moment of this incident ready to step in if necessary. however, the faa saying that this trainee was able to correct the problem immediately. we want to point out one other thing, wolf. ever since that technology, the collision avoidance technology has been placed in cockpits we haven t seen any actual collision and of course, that is a good thing. that s a very good thing, indeed. rene, thanks very much. let s bring in aviation correspondent richard quest to talk more about the close calls in air. is it getting close, richard,
with the final death toll at 134, including six on the ground, the 1960 crash over park slope replaces the grand canyon collision as the deadliest u.s. commercial aviation disaster to that point. to investigate the accident, the civil aeronautics board, the forerunner to the ntsb, uses flight data recorder, or black box technology, for the first time ever. the conclusion, united flight 826 proceeded beyond its clearance limit, or the place it was told to go into a holding pattern. its high rate of speed and the change of clearance, or shortcut, it was given by air traffic control are contributing factors. within three months, president kennedy establishes project beacon, the task force is mandated to review the country s aviation facilities, and put together a long-range plan for the future of air traffic in the