Dangerous skies

Tom Pearson

After ignoring urgent warnings for many months from air traffic 
controllers and pilots — and a couple of near mid-air collisions 
— the national air traffic control agency, Airservices 
Australia, has now been forced to review the new "see-and-avoid" 
system it introduced in November last year.

The National Airspace System (NAS) allows light planes and 
commercial passenger aircraft to share the same air space over a 
number of smaller airports and most domestic flight paths, 
without surveillance by air traffic controllers, relying instead 
on pilots monitoring other planes by sight.

Federal Transport Minister John Anderson oversaw the introduction 
of the system, singing its praises as world's best practice. But 
last week Airservices Australia chief executive Bernie Smith 
admitted the agency had not itself done a proper analysis of NAS 
and had instead relied on information supplied by "other groups".

"We should have done a full analysis ourselves", he said. 
Claiming that there was no increased risk, Smith nonetheless 
admitted that the "fact that we didn't follow the processes that 
we were legally required to certainly is something that poses a 
potential risk to the organisation".

The new set-up is a direct result of the brainchild of another 
Smith, small aircraft pilot and businessman, Dick, who in the 
1990s at the behest of the then Keating Labor Government, 
introduced an oxymoron called "affordable safety". This involved 
cost-cutting through the introduction of a new national 
centralised radar system which replaced air traffic controllers 
at many of Australia's airports.

This Government has continued along the same dangerous path, in 
part pandering to pressure groups within the aviation industry, 
including the light aircraft lobby.

Even now, Airservices Australia is still in denial about the 
increased dangers, despite a number of incidents, including last 
December's near miss involving three aircraft — a Virgin Blue 
737, a twin-engine Cessna and a medical flight — 55 nautical 
miles from Melbourne. The 737 was given clearance to descend into 
the new downgraded airspace, unaware of the other two aircraft.

The Cessna was then sandwiched between the two aircraft and about 
to enter the same airspace as the 737. Meanwhile, the 737's 
collision warning system, which gives pilots around 20 seconds to 
avoid a collision, automatically activated. It told the pilot to 
remain at the current flight level to avoid an imminent 
collision.

The Australian Air Traffic Control Association, Civil Air, said 
the incident was a direct result of the new airspace regime, and 
that controllers and pilots were under immense pressure because 
of it.

When Civil Air made its concerns public and called for the 
suspension of the airspace system, Minister Anderson attacked the 
air traffic controllers, saying they were "scaremongering". And 
even now that a review by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau 
has found the incident was caused by the new rules, Anderson is 
still saying, "I stand by my own conviction".

Adding to this pressure is the widespread failure of the 
transponders that monitor light aircraft, failures that render 
them invisible to collision warning systems.

Following the Government's line, Bernie Smith also rejected 
"speculation that a reversal of the changes is imminent".

Back on December 31, Anderson also ignored the findings of a 
safety inquiry into the system, and inquiry the Government itself 
had commissioned following a near-miss in Queensland between a 
passenger aircraft and a light plane.

The report said that "see-and-avoid is completely unsuitable as a 
primary traffic separation method", concluding that "see-and-
avoid in the absence of traffic alerts is subject to serious 
limitations".

Civil Air, which also has the support of the Australian and 
International Pilots' Association in the campaign, says that some 
of the major flaws in the airspace system could be removed by the 
Minister approving an industry plan to extend controlled airspace 
above airports.

"With the stroke of a pen Mr Anderson can allow Qantas, Virgin 
Blue and other commercial operators enough controlled space 
around airports to climb above the downgraded airspace and avoid 
any light aircraft", said Civil Air's Ted Lang. "It is an 
obvious, simple, cost-effective and workable solution that we 
fear the Minister has filed in the too-hard basket."