Reported by: Becky Freemal
Photographed by: Michael Benedic
After last week's midair collision, one pilot is speaking out about flying, safety and looking out for each other in the skies.
Uncontrolled airspace means that simply there is no air traffic control tower at the airport. But, pilots like Bill Sikute say flying in such airspace is anything but uncontrolled.
Each pilot is in constant communication with each other, and as Sikute says, they're scanning the sky at all times.
Along with keeping a visual, communicating on frequency 123.0 is exactly what radio traffic reports show the pilots involved in last week's crash did.
Unfortunately, Sikute explains the midair collision involved all the wrong things lining up at exactly the same time.
"The last report I heard on that tape was the Cessna's on 320 degrees, heading northwest, at 2100 feet. The Bonanza was heading at the airport, kind of converging paths at 3000 feet," he said.
And the way the wings are set on each plane, the Cessna had a blindspot looking up and the Bonanza had a blindspot looking down.
Sikute was the third plane in the air during that collision, and had he been a half mile closer, he may have seen the two planes.
"I keep replaying the fact that maybe I could have helped them by visually seeing them, but I just didn't," he said. "I did not see them."
Pilots look out for each other in this so-called "uncontrolled" airspace, and have no doubt their three friends killed in the collision were doing the same.
