Reading this thread one sees a wide spectrum of differing opinion. On the one side we have the "hang em high" brigade and on the other, Sky Guide are bloody useless and are totally to blame! Well, is there really a bad guy here?
I cannot condone what the Russian did! Nobody can or should. I can imagine his mental state though. I personally cannot envisage my family being wiped out by the vagaries of life and should such an event occur I would probably want to avenge them by whatever means at my disposal, especially if I felt that the authorities concerned ie this guy from Sky Guide ( the boss not the controller) was perhaps being insensitive. However, I would hope that I would be able to see that this is life, nasty as it is, in a more realistic manner and leave the blame culture to the authorities concerned. And therein lies the problem!
HAVE Sky Guide learnt anything from this tragedy or for that matter the operating company of the Russian aircraft? Sky Guide and the Russian pilots are culpable here. Sky Guide for operating to a lower safety standard than their own guidlines set out and the Russian crew for not following standard operating proceedures when dealing with an RA. Okay, I have been retired a few years now, but my recollection was that you always followed the instructions of the RA, REGARDLESS. Has this changed? What is more, SOPs stated that one had to inform ATC that one had received a TCAS warning and was climbing/descending asap. In this case the Russains were remiss and the controller was completely in the dark, going on instinct, which unfortunately was wrong in this case. But one has to ask. What were the sops that the Russians were operating under? Was their company not culpable? Lets face it! This was a tragic result to a situation which under the circumstances was probably unavoidable. Individuals and groups made huge mistakes in this instance. BUT, by pointing fingers and being polemic is not going to bring any solution, or more importantly, closure here. If you feel someone is culable then put pressure where it is due. For goodness sake stop trying to make pixie points by having a go at fellow contributers and lets try and learn from this tragic loss of life of children, families and a controller, who I am sure was only trying to do his best under difficult circumstances.