Hi all, I'm posting this in the hope of getting some response from some of our friends over the water:
The other night we were climbing out of LAX between Sebby and DAG on the SID cleared to 17000 feet.. Passing 16500feet (in altitude capture) the controller told us that we had traffic 1000 feet above us. I naively assumed that this meant they were at 18000 feet. The TCAS symbol briefly disappeared and then returned as a TA rapidly followed by a full descend RA. The other aircraft was in fact at 17500 and we were within 500 feet vertically and 1nm horizontally.
After it all died down we ascertained that it was a Be200 at 17500 feet and VFR at night! The controller seem very blase about pointing an aircraft with 300 people on board at traffic over the built up area of LA.
After a discussion with ATS at BA it transpires that this is permitted as they are outside controlled airspace.
Any comments?