While I'm no fan of UA, it seems that the media is sort of going a bit one-sided with these stories:
- the pacific near miss which involved a US Airways jet in one direction and United in the other; most stories just referenced United
- The EWR near miss, which led with United (most stories mentioned ExpressJet too)
- This story, which involves only United
There have no doubt been a number of other "near miss" stories that did not get the media attention that these did. Is the media picking on UA or is it a broader trend? I tend to think these things happen with roughly the same percentage on all carriers. United's standard deviation is no different than Southwest's.
It's the media that's responsible for the story here, no?
Agree with all your points - and although I'm certainly no huge fan of UA - I don't see how anyone can pin this to them - IMO ATC is the issue, not UA. In fact it may be because of UA pilot skill that these stories weren't really a story...