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.