"Fostex - yes, the slowness of the response to the report of land ahead steer right was dreadful. An immediate action of uncoupling and doing a rapid climbing turn would have unquestionably saved the day. Or even not uncoupling but just doing it, not querying it."
I couldn't agree more. Our SOP for a late sighting of an obstruction (with risk of collision) whilst at low level on NVG was a call of "Up, up, up" from any crew member which would initiate an immediate low level abort, without question. It absolutely saved me and my crew's life on one occasion when a crew member in the jump seat saw a significant mast in our flight path which hadn't been seen by either pilot.