I'm not a pilot and nor do I work in air traffic control, I'm just a regular aviation enthusiast with a safety background. I find it interesting that the air traffic controllers at MSP assign headings for each flight and not use the powerful safety tool of standard departure patterns out from their runways. These standard patterns are much more thought through than any heading command given orally from an air traffic controller to a pilot, and in addition with no risk of miscommunication as it clearly was in this close call.
All departures from my local airport (not that much smaller than MSP - two runway, mixed operation, will probably end up around 20 million passengers/220,000 movements this year) follow these standard patterns. As an example we got a clearance for TOMBO 5A departure from runway 01L in February 2006 (I say we because my boarding card said seat 0C for this short flight from OSL/ENGM to TRD/ENVA). Below is a short description of a TOMBO 5A departure (the flight is initially cleared for 7,000 feet):
Climb on RWY track 015° to 1200 FT, then intercept and follow R-015 GRM to DME 4.5 GRM, then turn left and track 348° . At DME 6 GRM, turn right and track 053° to intercept and proceed on QDR 003° BGU to TOMBO.
FMS/RNAV (overlay): GM381 - GM383 - On track 053° to GM387 - TOMBO.
Most operators at our airport has pre-programmed these departures in their FMC/FMS, and the picture below I took as we were DME 5.3 GRM at 4,000 feet with heading switching between 350° and 349°. Both primary flight displays (PFD) show the TOMBA 5A pattern as a solid magenta line.
How come that many US airports don't use standard departure patterns or even standard climb out direction to increase separation between aircraft to a safe/acceptable distance?