Getting quite busy at Kuala Lumpur
![](/images/avatars/th_new.gif)
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 1998
Location: Mesopotamos
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Getting quite busy at Kuala Lumpur
As SLF on a B777-300-ER flight 70nm/FL350 from Kuala Lumpur international airport last Sunday afternoon, I was quite bemused to see an airliner flash past on the downward looking camera on the reciprocal heading.
Later in the holding pattern I looked out the window to see a 3-holer emerge from several hundred feet directly underneath us on a heading 60 degrees to our right. I've been on the deck of a B744 when the TCAS has sounded and the offending aircraft was observed many miles away giving plenty of time to maintain separation, however this was too close for my liking.
Is this a normal day in the office at congested airports? Is the pilot in the 3-holer still allowed to press the PTT button and go "ratta tat tat"?
Later in the holding pattern I looked out the window to see a 3-holer emerge from several hundred feet directly underneath us on a heading 60 degrees to our right. I've been on the deck of a B744 when the TCAS has sounded and the offending aircraft was observed many miles away giving plenty of time to maintain separation, however this was too close for my liking.
Is this a normal day in the office at congested airports? Is the pilot in the 3-holer still allowed to press the PTT button and go "ratta tat tat"?
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Berkshire, UK
Age: 79
Posts: 8,268
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
OK. Another aircraft vertically below your flight would have been at least 1000 ft below. If you fly in the USA you would see plenty of that.
"I've been on the deck of a B744 when the TCAS has sounded and the offending aircraft was observed many miles away giving plenty of time to maintain separation, however this was too close for my liking. "
TCAS sounded with another aircraft many miles away? Can you imagine what would happen in a busy US or EU TMA if TCAS worked like that? It would be permanently going off. Whether separation was "too close" for your liking is irrelevant unless you were flying the aircraft. I have fielded many phone calls from members of the public climing to have seen a "a dangerous air miss" but the aircraft were correctly separated.
"I've been on the deck of a B744 when the TCAS has sounded and the offending aircraft was observed many miles away giving plenty of time to maintain separation, however this was too close for my liking. "
TCAS sounded with another aircraft many miles away? Can you imagine what would happen in a busy US or EU TMA if TCAS worked like that? It would be permanently going off. Whether separation was "too close" for your liking is irrelevant unless you were flying the aircraft. I have fielded many phone calls from members of the public climing to have seen a "a dangerous air miss" but the aircraft were correctly separated.