Can someone "in the know" look into whether there may have been a near-miss today (9/24) at about 5:20-5:25 pm? There was a KC-135 that appeared to be on final for Runway 8L flying over Ocean Pointe in Ewa Beach. Suddenly, I heard the engines spool up and then the KC powered into a banking right turn towards the ocean, flying right over Fort Weaver Road. That alone caught my attention with its unusualness ... high power and sudden turn in a different direction. A few seconds later, I saw a four-engine (wide body?) on final with gear down and flaps deployed. There couldn't have been more than 1000ft vertical, and maybe one mile horizontal separation between the two, and I can only wonder what the wake turbulence could have been for the second aircraft. The KC was way east of where the C-17s, P-3s, and C-130s sometimes orbit the Kalaeloa pattern, and practice whatever they do. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Quick research on liveatc...
ReplyDeleteUAL328 was arriving at the time (B744) and was advised of the traffic (KC-135 in the climb at 900), but no resolution advisories (or even traffic advisories) were issued by ATC. I'm not entirely sure where the KC-135 came from, possibly PHJR, though I don't normally see KC-135s there.
You may want to dig around Liveatc a bit and you might be able to find out more.
I don't know specifically what happened here, but I did hear a KC-135 on 118.3 doing practice approaches into JRF about 20 minutes prior.
ReplyDeleteNot exactly "in the know," but here's LiveATC's HNL Tower feed from the relevant period:
ReplyDeletehttp://archive-server.liveatc.net/phnl/PHNL-Twr-Sep-25-2013-0300Z.mp3
At the 23:28 mark (1728 local), tower calls a traffic alert to United 328, a 747 inbound from SFO, telling them to look for traffic at 11 o'clock, 1 mile, low. Seems like the tower didn't have comms with it? They cite a type unknown, but visually IDing a KC-135, who was by then (23:40) already passing from 328's left to their right at 180 kts.
Always a bit tough to decipher the chatter on LiveATC, but sounds like nothing else to United 328 until they land.
Thanks all...I agree...I have never seen KCs operating at JHR. C-17s, C-130s, P-3s, and I've even heard about a AN-124.
ReplyDeleteWatching it happen and hearing the engines spool up really made things much more dramatic.
The Hawai‘i Air National Guard KC-135Rs use JRF for touch-and-go practice, while their C-17As use NGF.
ReplyDelete