When in doubt, ask a third party

Normally, on this website, I don’t mention aircraft accidents as it normally doesn’t have anything to do with one bag travel. Occasionally I’ll mention an issue that may affect a fleet of aircraft, but rarely an individual accident—especially one involving private aircraft.

As a former private pilot, journalist and aviation enthusiast, I am interested in this subject and even covered some accidents.

But I digress.

Over the weekend, two single engine aircraft collided over northern Virginia. The pilot and passenger of one plane was killed and the pilot of the other aircraft was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Normally, a regional NTSB investigator would be assigned and that would be it until the a report was issued on the cause.

But this  time it’s different. The owner of one of the planes worked for the NTSB and the owner of the second plane worked for the FAA. (Both were privately owned aircraft and neither flight was government related.) While the NTSB is technically in charge of accident investigations, they work closely with the FAA. Would an investigation under these circumstances be fair or would one agency try to prove the employee of the other was at fault?

What to do?

Surprisingly, senior officials from both of these agencies got on the phone and agreed the best course would be to ask a third party to investigate. 

Canada is sending a team of their own investigators to take charge.

This is a rare case where two bureaucratic government agencies actually got together and decided to do the smart thing.

U.S. Asks Canada To Investigate Aircraft Collision