It's F1 weekend in Austin, so I'd assume that's part of the reason someone may think they don't need to care where they fly their private jet.
It's a choice to fly your airplane across the land/takeoff trajectory for a major airport. They also essentially flew by the F1 track on the way.
No, it isn't. It's a small non-jet aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_182_Skylane
> they clearly weren't listing to ATC
They are not required to in that airspace at that altitude.
No, it isn't. You can get a Cessna for less than a Cybertruck. You cannot get a private jet that cheap.
> If you're flying a couple miles away from a commercial airport and across the path of the runways, maybe you're not required to be listening to ATC, but that's definitely a choice you're making to risk it.
There's an explicit system of controlled airspace around airports.
See the picture illustrations in https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/97110/why-do-ai...
The Cessna was operating in airspace it had the legal right to be in and no need for ATC coordination. Near some of the busiest airports, etiquitte requires you try not to make a nuisance of yourself as a GA pilot to ATC.
It's not as if the lack of literal jet engines makes it less of a problem or less of a rich person's toy.
ATC had this controlled aircraft outside the airport's standard controlled airspace.
The fact that TCAS occurred at all means the Cessna was properly (legal requirement) broadcasting its altitude, airspeed, and GPS position to all around it.
The blame here likely lies with ATC, not the Cessna pilot.
edit: Flight tracks and ATC comms at https://x.com/flightradar24/status/1847148742882857191. This was ATC's problem.
Words matter.
The Cessna pilot is under no obligation to maintain contact with ATC in this airspace, and it is the job of ATC to route the aircraft under its guidance around this kind of airspace, and if penetration of uncontrolled airspace is required, then to advise about and route around any known traffic.
The Cessna was probably communicating with the relevant CTAF or tower frequency for the airport it was setting up an approach for, or monitoring Unicom for traffic avoidance for other small VFR aircraft.
A single pilot can’t fly, navigate, and maintain traffic separation in a plane and communicate on all frequencies at once simultaneously, and ATC does not have the resources to control all random manoeuvres of small aircraft.
This is why there are places where small aircraft operate, mostly under “see and avoid” VFR rules, and places where all operations are done under strict ATC controls.
In this case, the heavy aircraft was directed to fly through one of these uncontrolled areas, and the controller failed to maintain adequate separation from uncontrolled operations.