Taken from another site. I hope the writer. 'Mmo', doesn't mind me quoting him, because he says it better than I can.
[quote]How often do you call up on the ‘numbers’ to ensure you avoid a head-on with a closing speed of over 1800 km and hour over a fifteen hour sector LAX-SYD, Jack? And how do you ensure the other bloke’s similarly bored to the point where he’ll be listening out on the frequency?
I agree with 410. Offsetting should be made mandatory outside terminal areas and when not under direct radar control – and ASAP. See also the article on it on <a href="http://www.airborne.org/flying/forum_fly2.htm" target="_blank">http://www.airborne.org/flying/forum_fly2.htm</a> , which I believe was written quite some years ago.
What amazes me is that in places where it would be most beneficial, like the awful bottleneck in Jordan and Syria, the local regulators specifically issue Notams forbidding it.(!) And as transiting aircraft on their way to or from Europe squeeze through the very restricted area, frequently being forced to change levels to fit, any number of other aircraft on their way to and from Amman and Damascus, (and many of them of Russian origin with very ‘sus’ transponders that are not always compatible with Western ones – and therefore unreliable for TCAS), are climbing and descending through the levels, sometimes with less than minimum separation and relying on visual separation on the part of the crews.
When the collision occurs – (and it has already, more than once, like off the coast of Africa some years ago, but they were military transports and the media pretty well ignored it, and in India, where very few Westerners were involved) – the lawyers are going to have a field day suing the rrrrsus off all sorts of people who were in a position to have prevented it with one simple change of the regulations. But ATC and the Regulators seem to think it’s an admission of failure on their part to admit that humans are capable of making a mistake.
Wouldn’t it be nice if just once we could bring in a change in procedures that’s screaming to be changed before people first have to die first in such large numbers that the media and the public force the bureaucrats to get off their rrrsus and do something?
. .<hr></blockquote>
[ 18 February 2002: Message edited by: 410 ]</p>