Near Miss between Cathay and Virgin Blue

[Russell D]

From Yahoo7 News:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/austral...investigation/

Mid-air near miss under investigation

ABC December 28, 2009, 12:37 pm

The Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) is investigating a near collision between planes from two major airlines in Northern Territory skies on Tuesday.

The two planes were travelling just south of Katherine when the incident occurred.

The Cathay Pacific Airbus was travelling south of Katherine en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne.

At the same time a Virgin Blue Boeing 737 was coming in the opposite direction flying from Melbourne to Darwin.

The collision was avoided when a Cathay crew member questioned the controller about the safety of the course.

The crew were then instructed to climb higher to stop a crash.

Cathay Pacific say the passenger plane crew acted "appropriately" when avoiding the near collision.

The ATSB has classed the incident as serious and confirms that there was a breakdown of separation standards.

Investigations are continuing. A report is yet to be released.

[Mike W]

It's comforting all the safety proceedures are in place and adhered to to. A slow news day obviously. I wonder how many of these kind of "proceedures" take place daily?

[Owen H]

A slow news day?

The ATSB are investigating a breakdown in seperation that was detected due to crew alertness and questioning. It was not detected by the ATC that gave them the clearance. That isn't a "procedure" working, its a fortunate event that the crew happened to pick up that there was a conflict.

It is more newsworthy than a lot of the crap they publish.

[Mike W]

To you it is Owen

[Nigel C]

To me it is Mike.

[Owen H]

Yes, its personal opinion. I was giving mine, just like you gave yours.

As to how many of these procedures occur daily?

Most days, none. How do we know that? Because the ATSB investigate all breakdowns in seperation. We have maybe a couple a year.

You seem comforted that the safety procedures are adhered to.... what safety procedures? There was a breakdown in seperation. They didn't work. To me, this is far more newsworthy than 10 hour delay to passengers, or airline has technical stop due to toilets full.

[Mike W]

Did they crash?

[NickN]

How far were they from a TCAS warning ???? Would anybody have an idea?

[Daniel F]

No they didn't crash. But that's like saying that cops should only investigate murders and not attempted murders.

[Mike W]

I'm not saying it shouldn't be investigated. I am saying the systems regarding avoidance works and yes

I'm not saying it's not newsworthy to us on this forum. I am saying it's not newsworthy to those who suck up

a lot of the crap they publish

and yes I am

comforted that the safety procedures are adhered to