"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
online.com...
That's true, but it's one additional person that must make a mistake (or
lose awareness) for something bad to happen.

It's also one additional person who can make a mistake and create a
hazardous situation where none previously existed.

It's not a perfect solution, but it does improve the odds.

Are you sure? I've never seen any statistics that prove that a tower
"improves the odds". Due to the additional failure modes, it could just
as
easily reduce the odds. There are lots of examples of where adding
manpower
doesn't improve efficiency, quality, or safety. This might be one of
them.

From 1st January 1989 to 30 June 1999, seventeen mid-air collisions were
reported in French Territory.

Twelve collisions occurred in uncontrolled airspace (UA). Three took place
in controlled airspace (CA) in which radio contact was not compulsory.
Finally, there were two accidents in controlled airspace where radio contact
was compulsory.
In three cases, one of the two aircraft was passing from controlled airspace
to uncontrolled airspace.

http://www.bea-fr.org/etudes/abordageseng/midair.htm