Any issues flying small offset to airways route?
Can an ATC person explain to me what issues if any there would be if pilots we allowed to fly slightly offset from an airways route.
Flying from the west coast to the east coast of Australia at 37,000 ft in a B737-NG and passing directly under an opposite direction B737-NG with only 1,000 ft separation doesn't seem very smart to me.
What if we were able to or even required to pick a number between 0.1 and 0.9 nm as an offset to the right. This way if a mid air collision does occur it will be by chance, not by design!
Driving on the left-(or right)-hand side of the road to prevent head on collisions between cars travelling in the opposite direction makes perfect sense to everyone. Why not add that extra layer of protection to airliners with a combined closing speed of some 900 knots?
Last edited by Blip; 30th September 2006 at 08:01.
Reason: It originally posted in one big paragraph for some reason.