There is, what I think, is a brilliant example of why we need to check cleared flight level upon first contact. The incident occurred because the a/c was transfered from South to the wrong sector (Hurn I think) instead of Capital climbing to FL150 instead of FL210. This wasn't picked up on first contact and the controller climbed the a/c to FL230 in direct conflict to someting else at FL190 ( I think ) working Capital. Nearest point of contact, about a mile and 600ft.
The point is that the wrong level was either omitted or not picked up on first contact. If it was challenged then I dare say this incident would never have happened. If we weren't supposed to check the cleared level on first contact and assume the a/c are clean, then how many close escapes would we have? This incident by the way occurred within the last month.
I'm not in any way pointing fingers because, when the chips are down, we all miss things and have "there but for the grace of God go I" moments, but if we have it implanted in our brains that we're supposed to do this, then the chances of us missing things like cleared levels and wrong readbacks etc decreases which can only be a good thing.
Trainees are in some respects are caught between a rock and a hard place with regards to questioning procedures. There are some mentors whose attitude is "that is the way we always do it" so you will do it to, and those who are happy to be challenged and explain why we have these procedures. It does however depend on how the person ( in this example the trainee ) phrases the question. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we have to check the cleared FL because someone in the past ( and recentley ) has caught a cold because they haven't, and trainees should challenge mentors when they don't understand procedures albeit in a nice way.
Last edited by coracle; 21st August 2008 at 07:16.