A serious near-miss at Sydney Airport has raised major safety concerns, with investigators revealing they receive about 60 similar reports every year. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has launched an investigation after a Qantas Boeing 737 that had landed from Queenstown and a Qantas Link Dash 8 that had also just touched down from Canberra were cleared to use the same runway at the same time.
No one was injured in the incident, which occurred about 8.14am on July 27, with both aircraft stopping short of each other. ATSB chief commissioner and CEO Angus Mitchell told Sunrise on Thursday that incidents such as this are not uncommon.
Serious incident classification
While about 60 similar reports are made every year, only a small number are ultimately classified as serious incidents. The ATSB has classified this latest occurrence as a serious incident after the 737 rolled through a holding stop before coming to a halt.
“Very few of them go into that serious bucket, and this one does qualify as serious,” Mitchell said. He explained that while air traffic controllers use a digital system to co-ordinate aircraft movements on the ground, pilots also have “a responsibility around clearing the way ahead of them” as well.
Investigation underway
Mitchell said investigators were working to determine what caused the breakdown in co-ordination between air traffic control and the aircraft. Investigators have already interviewed the pilots involved and will now speak with air traffic controllers, analyse recorded flight data from both aircraft and review radio communications.
“We look at experience level of all those personnel involved. We look at how long they’ve been on duty for that day,” Mitchell said. “There’s a whole range of things we need to consider before we can really determine what contributed to this.”
Next steps
Mitchell said it was too early to determine what caused the incident, with investigators examining every possible contributing factor before reaching any conclusions. The ATSB’s report is likely to be finished by the end of the year.
“Should a critical safety issue be identified during the course of the investigation, the ATSB will immediately notify relevant parties so that appropriate safety action can be taken,” the bureau said on Wednesday.
