Originally Posted by
henra
But why didn't the controller intervene then when the Helo kept closing in? What horizontal separation did he deem OK?
Radar is not that accurate. He wouldn’t be able to tell if the helo was going to pass, say, 1/4 mile behind.
And in fact he did speak up, asked the helo to confirm in sight. Obviously he saw it was close and wanted to check.
Unfortunately he didn’t quite say enough. If he’d said “traffic is 1/2 mile” and the helo was looking at something 2 miles away, they might have twigged to it. Maybe.