STCA vs MTCD
Technical Question,
There are two types of (ATC) conflict avoidance tools referred to here;
Firstly, STCA (Short Term Conflict Alert), this usually gives an alert toward a conflict predicted within the next 90 seconds, in an Area environment, this would be very late, considering closing speeds and the likes. I would expect this is primarily used in an Approach (Terminal) environment.
Secondly, MTCD (Medium Term Conflict Detection), this usually detects conflicts in the next 15 minutes, which is not very appropriate for use in an Approach environment, but more readily used in an Area environment.
These are usually functions of the Radar Workstation, and as such should not be down for maintenance, it is a selectable function of the Radar Controller, furthermore, if one Radar Workstation was down, there should be a second (or more) workstation in the room that was operational and could have detected the conflict. STCA and MTCD are not like VOR's or ILS's that are removed for maintenance, they are integrated in the Radar Workstation.
The question is;
does this Swiss Sector have STCA and/or MTCD?