Singapore AAIB Report - B777-300ER Loss of Separation Incident (Houston)

[Uplinker]

Without seeing the actual chart, it is hard to see why this crew got it wrong.

However, in my opinion, something as important as the cleared altitude/level should be clearly and unambiguously shown. In the AAIB report, the box from the plate shown has the cleared altitude of the SID tucked away in the explanation of the routing - in the same font, and font size as the rest of the narrative. The box above is titled initial climb, the box below is titled routing. The departure is unusual in that the actual first cleared altitude is 600', and then the SID cleared altitude is written in a box titled routing. I think this is ambiguous, and as a pilot I think I would expect to find all reference to cleared altitudes in that box - in bold type - and not in the routing box.

Pilots in modern commercial flight operations need such important things to be very clear, and they should not expect to have to read every word of a chart to find something as basic and as safety critical as this. Some pilots prefer the visual representations, others prefer the text explanation. On all the Jepps and AERADS I have ever used, the first cleared altitude/level is either shown very clearly on the pictorial diagram of the routing at the appropriate point, or clearly written as a bold heading above the departure explanation box.

This is something that we make sure we brief for every departure - "what do you make the first cleared altitude?",and then we confirm that that altitude is set on the FCU and on the PFD.

So, on the face of it, two reasons for this loss of separation: Poor plate layout and design, and poor pilot briefing. This was then compounded by an incorrect TCAS RA reaction.