Airspace Intrusion - Be Fair Play
Controlled and restricted airspace are a major obstacle to VFR flying. TMAs are growing with each airspace revision, and they are no longer simple ractangles… If you fly inside controlled airspace without a clearance, the complexity is certainly not an excuse, particularly as modern navigation means are available.
Bad weather, disorientation, and the resulting stress are amongst the factors that contribute to illegal airspace intrusion by VFR pilots. Few years ago a student pilot got lost in the Zurich area, under adverse weather conditions. He realized where he was exactly when he overflew the thresholds of runways 14 and 16 - his initial strategy was to avoid the CTR !
Immediately after that, he called Zurich Tower which vectored him away, and managed other IFR traffic in the area to avoid any incident. My first word to this pilot is “Bravo” ! Why ? Because he took appropriate action…
Calling ATC when you realize you’re violating an airspace is the only smart thing to do. It’s tempting to try to simply turn around, cross fingers and hope no one saw you. This is silly, for two reasons:
- If the airspace you violate is monitored with radar, ATC will see you
- It’s easier for controllers to manage traffic around if they know what you do
It’s not the first time I say ATC is pilot’s best friend, and it applies again in this case. If you get lost in an area with dense traffic, getting out via the shortest path is not always the best thing to do. Controllers have a view of all the aircrafts in vicinity, which a lost pilot certainly does not have.
It is also true that after solving your problem ATC will certainly file a report, and an investigation will follow. You will have to explain why and how this violation occured, and this will certainly not be the best time of your flying career. But at least you will survive the incursion, and the investigators will mention your co-operative action to solve the issue.
If you decide to go away silently and hope no one saw you, remember that you will anyway be detected by radar, and followed to your destination. No worries because you sqwaked VFR ? Silly you ! If your transponder is Mode-S, it sends the tail number. Even if your transponder is not yet Mode-S (and even if it’s off) you can be followed by radar, and non-controlled airports do record departure and arrival times…
What this young pilot made in Zurich is the only smart thing to do: contact the controller in charge of the airpsace you violated ! This is one of the not so frequent rules that suffer no exception. If you don’t think so, let me know !
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Jess Sightler
Indeed… contacting the controller is the smartest thing to do. In the US there is a safety reporting system (NASA reports) that grants pilots a limited “get out of jail free card” for incidents such as this. Essentially the pilot self reports anonymously, while keeping a receipt from the report for his records. ASRS then compiles the anonymous data from these reports into safety information which can be disseminated to other pilots to warn of unsafe or potentially dangerous situations encountered by others.
There are some limitations as to what is or is not covered, but the bottom line is that inadvertant violations do not have to impact a pilot from a disciplinary standpoint.
Feb 21st, 2008
PlasticPilot
Jess, thanks again for sharing the US view. The European law is more complex, particularly as each country has its own. France created an “Anonymous Events Reporting System” to allow for experience sharing in a “non-punitive” way.
You won’t get out of jail if caught, but you can tell about all the times you did not !
Feb 21st, 2008
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