Sometimes you have to do what makes you feel safest. I was in a climb one day as a brand new FO on a B737 and at 3700 ft was told to level at 4,000 ft because of opposite direction traffic at 4300 ft. Knowing I couldn't do that at our rate of climb looked out the window and saw no aircraft so accelerated climb verifying no aircraft rather than pushing nose down into blind area. 20 seconds later passing about 5,000 ft approach said your traffic just passed below you at 4,000 ft. I told the captain what I was going to do of course but blindly following last second instructions from ATC may not always be the safest thing to do.
This happened in the earlly 80's prior to TCAS.
Last edited by bubbers44; 22nd Oct 2013 at 08:49.
Reason: addition