2021-12 · NASA ASRS report 1864147
GA student pilot reported observing a twin piston aircraft converging resulted in taking evasive action.
I was en route from ZZZ to SRB descending from 7;500 feet MSL with flight following from Memphis Center. During my 500 fpm descent; ATC notified me of another unconfirmed plane I'd already noticed; traveling at a roughly perpendicular path from west to east (my right to my left) approximately 7.5nm ahead of me. I confirmed the traffic and determined with ATC's assistance that I would pass under and behind his track. I continued on my direct descent at 500 fpm.When the other plane (a twin-piston) was at about my 1-o-clock; it took a sudden 120 degrees left turn to point directly at me and began descending on an intercept course. Memphis Center also confirmed this. I took evasive action; increasing my rate of descent and turning to my right. The other plane flew above me; performed a steep turn maneuver; and then flew on my course around 500 feet ahead and above me before turning back to the west. Due to its proximity; I lost ADS-B In information as well as ATC radio. After multiple attempts to contact Memphis Center; I switched to the SRB CTAF on my secondary audio channel and maintained audio on Memphis Center on my primary. Another aircraft was eventually able to inform me on that channel that radar services had been terminated. I landed safely and picked up VFR flight following again on departure from SRB.I believe the other aircraft's pilot must not have checked ADS-B In information or conducted a sufficient visual scan prior to maneuvering. I am concerned with the precision of the intercept they conducted and believe it is possible that the maneuver was intentional on their part.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.