Finding That Silver Lining

An Airline Crew’s Close Call.

- Andrew Ross

Through the years, I have enjoyed relating to ILAFFT stories in Flying and have even corrected a few bad habits based on what I’ve read. I thought there would come a time when the lessons I personally learned while flying would no longer translate to GA flying, and my window of opportunity to submit to this department would close. That view was proved wrong on July 27, 2016.

I am a five-year first officer with my current airline, flying the Embraer 145 out of Chicago O’Hare International Airport. I would not say I am a “very” experienced pilot, but my flight time is around 5,000 hours, the last 4,000 of which have been at the airlines. Now, I know we never stop learning. I had a saying for my CFI candidate students: “If you ever show up one day thinking you know it all, quit.” I carry that same principle over to my current job, and still preach it when I can.

The day was beautiful by all accounts: a moderate 85-degree temperature with some scattered and broken clouds at 4,000 feet across the Midwest. My captain and I were set to blast off for our last flight of the day to La Crosse, Wisconsin, for our overnight. During our normal banter and preflight preparations, I mentioned that Oshkosh was going on next week and that I couldn’t wait to head up for a day trip. I also mentioned that we should probably keep an extra cautious eye out on descent, as there might be additional VFR traffic inbound to the world’s greatest aviation celebration. How right that would be.