05-02-2025
Here's how many 'near midair collisions' have occurred at Milwaukee's two airports
Public records show Milwaukee's airspace has seen relatively few flight issues over the last decade, but four incidents are classified as "near midair collisions."
That's based on reports from the Aviation Safety Reporting System, a voluntary reporting database for aviation safety incidents known as ASRS. In total, there have been about 38 reports filed related to Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport and three at Milwaukee County's Timmerman Airport, the smaller sister airport to Mitchell used for general aviation.
The ASRS system offers some details of the types of concerns that Milwaukee's airspace has seen in recent years, following tragedies in Washington, D.C., and in Philadelphia after planes crashed and killed over 70 people between the two accidents.
The sampling of the 38 reports from Milwaukee airports span from pilots' irritation with air traffic controllers' communication to more serious incidents, described as "near midair collisions," or when two aircraft are within 500 feet of each other. Between both airports, there were four reports involving near midair collisions in the last 10 years — three at Mitchell, one at Timmerman.
Of the near midair collision reports at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, two involved drones flying near planes in 2024 and in 2017.
In 2017, a flight captain reported miscommunication with an air traffic controller that could have resulted in a collision. The captain was alerted by the plane's in-flight traffic collision avoidance system of possible incidents, instead.
"Had we had followed (air traffic controller) instructions and climbed to 6,000 feet ... we would have almost certainly collided or come extremely close to it," the captain wrote in their report.
The reports detail other incidents, including how a pilot avoided a parachutist following miscommunication in 2017 and a frustrated pilot who was in the path of another aircraft in 2015.
On Saturday, most travelers at Mitchell International Airport told the Journal Sentinel recent accidents in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia didn't give them much pause in deciding to fly.
When Shawn Chambers was preparing to fly to Milwaukee over the weekend, his friends cast some doubt on his decision to fly. Chambers got on a plane from Sacramento, flew to Denver and then to Milwaukee, to go see his new niece.
"You're going to fly now?'" he said his friends asked him. "I wasn't going to miss it."
A spokesperson for Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport said the airport is not involved in 'controlling the airspace or the movement of airplanes on the ground" and deferred comment to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Federal Aviation Administration declined an interview request, but a spokesperson said in an email the ASRS reports are "one of many data sources" it uses to identify safety risks. The system was established in partnership with National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1976 and available to "all aviation stakeholders," the spokesperson said.
That system allows anyone involved with a flight to report safety concerns that occur and offers them confidentiality in doing so.
David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Near midair collisions occur in Milwaukee. Here's how many
