US vs Australian airspace
In the USA ALL IFR aircraft are separated by ATC.
Dick Smith has been trying to bring Australian safety standards up for at least 30 years by insisting on the same ATC separation here.
The ATSB report confirms what this forum has known for some time => both aircraft were visible to ATC via ADS-B tracking.
Airservices have a flow chart that demonstrates the workload of providing separation is LESS than the workload of only providing traffic.
WHY?
Each task requires ATC considering the trajectory of every aircraft in the sector.
To separate aircraft, the ATC makes a decision and issues an instruction.
If the ATC passes traffic then the pilot may respond with his decision to change altitude or track or otherwise avoid the conflict
BUT then the ATC has to assess this change to determine if a different conflict will occur and perhaps pass further traffic.
So let us stop accepting the nonsense argument that it costs more to provide separation compared to traffic information - it does not.
What is the total cost of this accident going to be?
Almost two decades ago Dick organised a trip by both Airservices and CASA staff to the United States with flights arranged to demonstrate the ease of use and safety of Class E airspace.
A very experienced US ATC from the Southern California Terminal Radar Control Unit addressed the team and pointed out how easy it was to provide separation and how safe the result.
John and Martha King of King schools tried very hard to educate the team on why US airspace is as safe as Australian airspace in terms of collisions per flight hour but has so much greater traffic density and thus greater actual safety.
A lot of very experienced pilots and controllers in this country know Dick was right back then and he is proven right again by this accident.
CAN WE LEARN FROM IT THIS TIME???