For those of you who have never flown before

[R094V1-George]

You have been assured by everybody that flying really is the safest form of transport. You`ve had a few stiff drinks before boarding the aircraft - British Airways, yeah, you should be real safe - The take-off was smooth and the aircraft is climbing to it`s assigned height.....

And then...................Ohhh Shit!

 

[BootneckYank]

Safe to say that somebody dropped the ball. If the BA jet was following assigned vectors, then it was probably ATC or the other planes crew.
Funny thing is, I've flown in light aircraft with a less-sophisticated version of TCAS, and it always gave plenty of advanced warning of an impending conflict, with visual as well as aural alerts from the moment the conflicting traffic entered it's detection range.
For those who aren't sad aviation geeks like me, TCAS detects transponder signals from other aircraft, and uses it to plot potential airspace conflicts. The 777 has a multi-function display screen that should have showed the oncoming traffic before it became an immediate threat.

 

[Deckhead_Inspector]

The correct response to a TCAS alert will not result in the trolly dolies hitting the roof or the aircraft hitting each other. I look forward to the official report. I smell a lawyer here.