Dick,
If the report says the 737 crew didn't sight, I'll accept that. However, the captain, in an agitated tone, transmitted that he had half (meaning one side) of the passengers seeing the Tobago. That may or may not be included in the transcript, but take it from me.
If you can't accept that this was a very serious incident, then there is no point talking about it any further, we are universes apart.
The whole concept of allowing light aircraft to transit overhead an airport with frequent jet movements, and not needing to announce, and being completely invisible electronically, is unbelievable. In the states the model worked because there was surveillance.
Oz controllers do a pretty good job with the available resources. A major reason traffic moves better in some overseas countries is because of infrastructure. Pretty every airport I'll flown into in the US, which is reasonable number, has had multiple parallel runways, crossing at that. Places like San Franscisco, where you are on final with two other aircraft next to you, with three lined up on the crossing ready to roar. As you know, we have nothing like that in Oz.
At the end of the day, the traffic, meaning delays also, is determined by the runway availability, something like one a minute. Then we have other pieces such as high speed taxiways, allowing minimum time on the runway.
We also have political issues like curfews. Come on, back in the 727 days, a valid concern. Today, modern jets make more aerodynamic noise, which is very little, on approach, an not that much more on departures. So we have the artificial bottleneck every morning around 6 am as the internationals arrive. Seriously, any train line makes more noise these days, why not put a curfew on trains?
If we had multiple crossing runways in the major airports, it would make a huge difference. But no, it's those overpaid, lazy, leftie controllers deliberately delaying the pilots.
Anyway, you have convinced me that I am an idiot, so you can sit on the top of the sandpile in the playground. It's all yours. Ciao ciao