"The simple truth is that even good controllers
occasionally make mistakes. When they do, we have multiple layers
of safety in place to protect the traveling public."
Source: Ian Gregor, Western Region spokesman
for the FAA. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association told
ANN Friday of an incident in the skies over Nevada Thursday, in
which an aircraft descending through 28,000 feet came within 2.6
miles of a second plane on converging flight paths. NATCA says the
planes would have come even closer... had the pilots not responded
to TCAS warnings, and a controller had not vectored the planes away
from each other.