I write in reference to
this BBC article , which is the story of a near-miss 15 months ago between a Delta 767 and a Virgin 747. Apparantly at one point the vertical seperation was 100 feet and laterally, 1.5 nm. I have two questions:
1. The pilot of the Virgin plane pulled up in accordance with the TCAS system - does the alarm go off when planes are
definitely about to be in
exactly the same place at the same time, or is there a margin of error, say 100 feet vertically? Basically, is the TCAS set to go off only when there is a 100% chance of collision?
2. Say the closest the planes ever got vertically was 100 feet, and the Delta passes right under the 747. Given the size of the planes, what (if any) would the effect be - jetwash, turbulance etc?
Many thanks to anyone with an answer.
Dave.