Ferris … good points …
The controller used his discretion and initiative (and experience) to stop the descent of the B737 about 90secs before what he saw as a real possibility of ……. A very dangerous, unsafe situation.
On the screen … a radar track symbol is 3.5mm wide. The ASD scale is 1Nm = 2mm
"The ATSB report is basically saying that "it was all according to the rules". It doesn't say the "rules are good"." - Agree. Basically, the ATSB presented some facts and concluded that "… this occurrence did not constitute an airprox occurrence." Nothing more.
There's other stuff that the ATSB report didn't say … or ignored … and one (at least) discrepancy with other documented info ...
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"Aircraft apart 300 feet mid-air now okay"
Read the fine print of the press release rather than just the big print of the title!
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"Pilots of VFR flights should avoid IFR holding patterns" (AIP ENR1 18.3.3)
Nobody seems to have questioned the fact that this all occurred in the immediate vicinity of a key holding pattern - CANTY. And, given the poor weather … there could well have been holding!
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The message may be getting thru to some of the Virgin crews …. That would explain the recent diversions by jets around unidentified VFR radar tracks without mode C!
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