angry wrote:

Absurd is to see people like you believe in the newspaper stories.

And just where are you getting your information, considering that no
official accident report has been released? I have enough knowledge to
know that information from the media is suspect, particularly their
opinions about what happened and who is at fault.

The ATC did made a mistake by choosing wrong altitude to advice as so to
avoid the collision.

If the Russian plane had followed the ATC instruction, and the DHL plane
had continued without descending, there would have been no collision.
The ATC instruction was incorrect in hindsight, but given the
conflicting information from the collision warning system, the Russian
pilot should have ignored the ATC instruction. Had the pilot done so,
there wouldn't have been a collision.

You are saying that he was unaware of the other aicraft - that's
absurd - he was the only one on duty and he had ALL the aicraft in
his vicinity, their course, and their altitude displayed for him
to make a decision.

He was late in asking the Russian plane to change altitude. That was
part of the problem. However, the collision warning systems are
installed on aircraft for just that eventuality, and the Russian pilot
did not use it correctly.

As far as the altitude display available to the ATC, it is not
necessarily that accurate, since it is only updated on the radar screen
about once every 12 seconds, and relies on the altimeters in each of the
aircraft for data, which can be out of calibration by a couple of
hundred feet. That is why flight levels are at least 500 feet apart, and
automatic TCAS warnings are made earlier at high altitudes.

Beyond that, yes the aircraft were flying at essentially the same
altitude, since they had entered Swiss airspace at the designated
altitudes, which were the same. The controller eventually made the
choice to ask one to descend to avoid the collision. There was nothing
wrong with that instruction by itself, other than it was a bit late.

He made the wrong one.

The ATC likely made the right one, based on the information he had at
hand. However, neither of us can be sure of that, since the official
report has yet to be released.

He further in a tone not allowing any questioning instructed
the russian pilot to obey him and ignore the onboard TCAS
instructions.

Nonsense. Pilots are routinely told to ignore ATC instructions if
following them would endanger their aircraft. In fact, the European
traffic control rules specifically state that pilots are to obey TCAS
advisories over any conflicting ATC instructions. The pilot did not
follow that rule. Pilots have absolutely no obligation to follow ATC
instructions if safety is involved.

The poor pilot did (contrary to what he should have done) and a
lot of people died as a result.

So you are now saying the pilot was primarily at fault?

That's because of the ATC's mistake and attitude.

No. In the first place, the ATC's mistake was in not asking the aircraft
to change altitude sooner. He did not make a mistake in asking the
Russian aircraft to descend, based on the information available to him,
nor was the urgency of his instruction an error, since he was trying to
avoid an imminent collision.

In saying the ATC instruction was a mistake is a gross
oversimplification of a complex set of interactions. The ATC was
certainly involved in the events that led up to the collision, but there
were many other events, such as inadequate support from the ATC's
employer, equipment that was out of service, and questionable training
of pilots on the part of the Russian airline. The ATC was likely not
even primarily to blame. This is where the official accident report will
sort out many of the conflicting events.

Did you get it this time?

I seem to have a much better understanding of the situation than you do.

And further to your earlier suggestion that the ATC instructed the
Russian plane to descend even though he knew that it was contrary to the
advisory from the aircraft's own collision avoidance system, here is a
link to the transcript of the flight data and voice recorders prepared
by the German investigators:

http://www.bfu-web.de/olderinfo/aktuinfo-e28.htm

As you can see, the controller would only have known about the DHL
aircraft descending after the pilot announced it over the radio. This
was 30 seconds after asking the Russian aircraft to descend, and less
than 13 seconds prior to the collision.