Mid-air collision over Brasil

[ATC Watcher]

Originally Posted by broadreach

For Portuguese readers:
http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/mat/200.../285929322.asp
The article indicates the Legacy was at FL370, still under Brasilia ATC, while the 738 had requested and been cleared by Manaus ATC to climb from FL350 to 390.
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If this is correct, it start to shed some (credibile) light in the puzzle, which eliminate the hollywood theories and the cow boys swiching off Xponders and deviate from assigned level without clearances !

Speculations :Lack of estimate ( therefore knowledge )of the Legacy to Manaus ACC , or no coordination of the 738 climb to Brasilia ,or too slow rate of climb undetected, or intentional/unitentional level off during the climb, etc, I have seen all of those many , many times in my carreer.

As to TCAS, only the both FDR/CVRs will tell us why the system ( i.e humans , procedures or technics ) malfunctionned.
TCAS has never claimed it will be error free and will cover for every case.