Ferris
Quoting Uberlingen doesn't help your case- that appeared to be a failure of conflict recognition (for reasons we won't get into), not a failure of conflict resolution . Was the word "expedite" used in that particular case?
Actually it was used....when the controllre noticed the two aircraft converging he issued a descent clearance to the T154 to descend FL350 using the phraseology "expedite, I have crossing traffic."
Although this was not a factor in the tragedy, it does throw up an interesting point.....the B757, following his TCAS RA, descended with 1500fpm as instructed by TCAS. Does it not follow therefore that the T154 also descended with the same rate? This would infer that the Russian pilot understood 1500fpm to constitute an expedite descent.
Not an attack....your post just got me thinking, and I did a little reading up.
While I'm here,
Vectorline I re-read your post also, and would like to answer your badly disguised dig at Maastricht controllers. VERA, (Verification of sEparation and Resolution Advisory, is a tool which predicts lateral separation between two selected tracks, based on radar derived speed and direction, which stays dynamic with each radar update. It also provides a suggestion on resolution, which is utter toilet, and nobody even looks at it. It is used as a tool, an indication, nothing more, to suggest we let it do the thinking for us is a bit rich. It is not uncommon for Clacton or North Sea controllers to call Maastricht and ask us to use VERA on their traffic, and why not? It is a very useful tool to have at your disposal.
This was supposed to be added to my last post, but I got sidetracked...ie told to get the hell off the pc by Mrs 433
