Help me out, airline guys...
article said:
Planes flying at that altitude must remain three miles apart horizontally and 1,000 feet vertically. The FAA declined to say how close the two planes came, saying that is part of its investigation.
I thought once you call in sight, the separation was symbology doesn't merge. I understand the separation if they're IMC or not in sight, but once they called "Traffic in sight," I thought it was see and avoid. I say this just based off all the briefs the ATC guy at Pensacola would give us during IGS every year.
I had one little ol' Granny come up to me, beak-to-beak as I was opening the Jetway door to man up (full uniform + bags + '4-stripe aura') ... and ask me straight:
"Sonny -- are you on drugs"???
I sniffed a couple of times ... rubbed my nose vigorously ... said: "No Ma'am, not anytime recently ... " and moved along.
I at least understand the complexity of landing a 737 or heavier even if I haven't done it, so I say this with no ill will... I could probably count on one hand (maybe two, but I'd have fingers left over) the number of smooth landings while flying on the airlines. Again, I'm not saying anything was unsafe or even unusual. But there was this one landing that a Southwest pilot did at Jax that was pretty damn impressive. Probably the smoothest I've ever felt on an airline. Even the fay running the intercom came on and said, "I've been 'flying' 737s for 15 years and that's the smoothest landing I've ever felt."
Among other things, minimum radar separation depends mostly on type and proximity of radar facilities while visual separation depends on comms with both aircraft.