Near-Miss Involving FAA Beech 300 and TWA Flight 393 (N64339)

Incident Overview and Air Traffic Control Context An FAA Beech 300, operating under the call sign FLT CHECK 72 (FLC72), was heading southeast on J79 at flight level 260, while TWA Flight 393 was heading south on J45 at flight level 310. Both aircraft had IFR clearances and were being controlled by the R58 controller at Jacksonville ARTCC. At the time, the controller was busy working a number of other aircraft. ## Sequence of Events FLC72 requested a descent, but the descent was delayed while the controller coordinated traffic with another controller. In the meantime, TWA Flight 393 was cleared to descend to flight level 240. About 90 seconds later, FLC72 was told to fly a heading of 195 degrees and to descend and maintain 16,000 feet. FLC72 acknowledged, but did not descend in a timely manner, nor did the controller note the anomaly. ## Cockpit Factors The convergence occurred when the captain of FLC72 allowed the copilot to leave the cockpit and let another FAA employee occupy the copilot's seat. The captain reported that he may have become distracted while briefing the employee. ## Outcome Subsequently, FLC72 and TWA Flight 393 converged to about 0.8 miles horizontal separation at the same altitude.