Question

We have been asked to investigate two flights, AA flight and U A flight. Both flights are at 33,000 feet, and the flight paths intersect directly over city of Frada Heights. A committee of concerned citizens has petitioned the City to investigate the possible danger of a collision of these two flights at 1:30 pm. On the day we checked, we found that at 1:30 PM , AA was 32 nautical miles from Frada Heights, approaching it on a heading of 171 degress at a rate of 405 knots. At the same time, United was 44 nautical miles from Frada Heights and was approaching it on a heading of 81 degrees at a rate of 465 knots. The DPS has asked us to determine how fast the planes were approaching each other (i.e., how fast the distance between them was decreasing) at that time. The DPS would also like to know whether the flights would have violated the FAA's minimum separation requirement of 5 nautical miles. We would like to determine how close the planes actually get to each other.

Answer 1

Both flights approach each other at a speed of 624.70 Knots. The FAA minimum separation is not violated as both airplanes are 7.26 Nautical miles away from each other at the time when one of the flights( flight AA) passes through Frada Heights.

Explanation:

To solve this kind of problem, the knowledge of concept of relative velocity is needed as the first question requested how fast the flights were approaching each other. To find the minimum distance between both flights, the closest point of approach between both flights should be taken into consideration which was Frada heights. Flight AA passes through Frada Heights in a shorter time of 0.079 hours. This is the time at which both flights approach each other the closest and so the minimum distance (separation) between them. This was calculated to be 7.26NM which is greater than the FAA's minimum this requirement for flight was not violated.

Detailed calculation steps can be found in the attachment below.