Originally Posted by
B747-437B
2500' is significantly more than the minimum vertical seperation required between aircraft. 5000' is also more than sufficient for lateral seperation during the descent phase (ICAO requires between 2500' and 3400' lateral seperation for dependant/independant approaches).
A near miss is defined as a violation of seperation to within 500' without collision. Judging by what you describe, you had at least a FIVEFOLD margin of safety.
Thanks for the info. Sorry for the tardy respone. I had my passport stolen by a pickpocket shortly after a posted that message yesterday! Now I'm stuck here for an extra 3 days.
Based on what you've written it would seem that if we had maintained our original flight path, we would have violated those rules. That doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. Making a mid-flight correction with about 2 minutes to spare is better than not, that does not really impress as much of a margin for safety.