TCAS altitude information
I keep asking myself if the DHL 757 might have disappeared from the radar screen before the crash. Would have been possible if the transponder failed.
Now, is it possible that TCAS is working fine while the transponder isnīt? If yes, it would explain why both planes descended and why the 757 wasnīt given any instruction...the controller could simply have forgotten it because he couldnīt see it anymore. Maybe the descend instruction to the TU154 was just given because it was to be handed over to Geneva at FL 350.
That would be the only thing I could imagine to have happened. I just donīt believe a controller wouldnīt give it more than two tries to keep to conflicting airplanes apart.
Have had this kind of conflict myself, and I nearly got a heart attack and turned both of them 90° while giving traffic info...
Last edited by caba; 4th Jul 2002 at 20:56.