Ozbiggles, are you suggesting that because there has been a midair collision in the United States that we don’t update any of our 1930s procedures?
You may know that the US has approximately 15 midairs per year, and we have on average one midair per year. The US has about 15 times the number of aircraft in roughly the same airspace. Some experts say that the collision risk goes up with the square of the traffic density. Whether this is true or not, it shows that the US airspace system is extraordinarily safe when you consider the weather conditions, the high mountain ranges, and the very high density of traffic.
I find it fascinating that a small group of people will argue in every way they can to keep the status quo – i.e. never make a change.
A good example is in Airspace 2000, we attempted to bring in a recommendation that when on a two-way airway, aircraft should fly a small amount (0.1 nautical miles) to the right of track. This would help to prevent the type of accident which happened in Brazil on 29 September 2006, where 155 people died because air traffic control or pilot error put two aircraft in exactly the same airspace at the same time. Before RVSM and highly accurate GPS, the chance of them colliding would have been minimal. Now it is a foregone certainty.
It will be interesting to see when ICAO overcomes the people who are trying to stop change and brings in some type of requirement to fly at a certain distance to the right of track to help to prevent this type of terrible midair collision.