In the midst of planning a New Years vacation to Buenos Aires, I have come across some baffling information about Gol Transportes Aereos, a low-cost Brazilian airline. Since I had never heard of the airline, I checked a few places to see what the general consensus was regarding its legitimacy and safety. Good news so far- only one accident. The baffling part is the type of accident it was. According to Wikipedia, a Gol plane went off radar in Sept 06 and ended up crashing into another plane in mid air. The other plane ended up landing with some damage. The remains of the Gol plane were found in the Amazon, and everyone aboard (154 people) died.What I want to know is this: HOW IN THE WORLD DID TWO AIRPLANES CRASH INTO ONE ANOTHER IN MID AIR?? It seems like it would be very difficult to do. Wikipedia says the accident triggered a major crisis in the Brazilian civil airline market. I would imagine so!
I continued my research and found an entire list on Wikipedia of all "notable" civilian and military mid-air collisions. The first one recorded is from 1938. The most recent one is from this July, when two news helicopters collided over Phoenix, Arizona while covering a police chase. One of them was broadcasting live when it happened. You can see videos on YouTube. Second fascinating mid-air collision: 1988. Two Aermacchi MB-339 collided during an airshow above Ramstein Air Base and fell onto the audience. I wonder if people thought it was part of the show for a while.
All told there have been 25 "notable mid-air collisions" according to Wikipedia. The 60s and 70s seem to be the worst decades with 10 between them.
