Midwest Express Airlines Flight 007

Midwest Express Airlines Flight 007 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that was involved in a near Mid-Air collision, leading to quick/sharp dives and 4 minor injures. The flight came anywhere from 300-30 feet from United Airlines Flight 175.

Had the pair of aircraft collided it could have been the 4th worst Mid-air collision in American history. (Only behind the 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision, 1960 New York mid-air collision and,PSA Flight 182

On September 11, 2001,Midwest Express(Midex) 007 was operated by a 22 year old McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, With the registration of N207ME. The DC-9 was manufactured in 1979 for Garuda Indonesia, and bought by Midwest in 1995.

The flight would be operated by Caption Gerald Earwood and first officer Eric Fjelstad (who had joined Midwest less then a year prior). Earwood was well known at Midwest for his tendency to "joke" with his fellow crew members, also on board would be 3 cabin crew/flight attendees.

Around 6am the flight departed Milwaukee with a set arrival time of around 9am local time, the flight would be uneventful for the first hour and a half.

While the aircraft was on NYC radar, several calls to ATC where missed. This lead to the crew believing they might have had a broken radio. This was at the same time as American Airlines flight 11 crashed.^[2]

As the aircraft was nearing the Hudson river, United Airlines 175 was also approaching at the same attitude. As ATC was focused moving both a Delta, and a TWA flight. And so Midwest 007 was left on the side. The controller was alerted to the conflict and began to direct 007 to turn to it's left to witch they began a 30 degree turn. The controller seeing that United 175 was less than a mile from collision he told them to "Roll Right". At this time the First officer could see the united flight and sent the aircraft into a right hand dive.^[3] The aircraft quickly lost altitude and they had to pull up after around 1000 feet. United 175, now on its final decedent was still on a collision course with the plane. Once again the crew where forced to dive. This time 4 people (2 passengers and 2 cabin crew) where injured. The aircraft dropped around 2000 feet, in a second right-handed dive allowing flight 175 to pass around 300-30 feet above.^[4]

The aircraft landed safely with no further issues. N207ME would receive some temporary repairs in NYC before flying a group of Midwest Express crew members back to Milwaukee on the 13th, where it would receive more heavy repairs, it is currently stored in Mexico along with the 747SP that operated China Airlines Flight 006. Both pilots would continue to fly for Midwest Express until 2010, when the airline ceased operations.

The book "Touching History" by Lynn Spencer includes the flight along with a number of others