http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...351697164.html
Union scaremongering with near miss reports: Anderson December 4, 2003 - 11:36AM
A union was today accused of scaremongering over claims a plane was within 20 seconds of a mid-air disaster near Melbourne.
Transport Minister John Anderson said the claim was horrendous.
He said it was simply one of more than 60 incidents from the past week since new airspace rules took effect that would be reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).
Ted Lang, president of the air traffic controllers union Civil Air, claimed Virgin flight DJ980 from the Gold Coast to Melbourne was believed to be 20 seconds from colliding with a twin-engine Cessna yesterday when an alarm was triggered yesterday as it was descending north-west of Melbourne.
Mr Anderson said he could not guarantee there would never be a mid-air crash but said the government would not have implemented the new system if it did not believe it was safe.
"Can I guarantee there will never be an incident? No I can't, of course I can't," he said.
"You can't guarantee wherever human beings are involved, wherever mechanical contrivances are involved, total and absolute safety, you can't."
He described claims of a near miss by the union representing air traffic controllers and Mr Lang, as outrageous.
"I hear all of this irresponsible talk about close collisions and 20 seconds and so forth," Mr Anderson said.
"The ATSB has a responsibility now to investigate it.
"This happened in controlled airspace ,
all the scaremongering that Ted Lang's been engaging in has been about uncontrolled airspace.
"The aircraft, both of them were in contact with the tower."
Mr Anderson said he believed the new airspace system would enhance safety.
"A lot of this centres on so called incidents and it is horrendous to describe something as a near miss when a responsible person knows full well that an incident does not constitute a near miss."
Mr Anderson said there were around 50 incidents reported each week and this had risen to more than 60 in the week since the new rules were introduced.
Earlier, Virgin Blue spokesman David Huttner said the airline would consider in its investigation whether the new National Airspace System was to blame. But he said anyone speculating on the possible cause of the incident "would be doing so without all the facts".
Mr Huttner cast doubt the claim that the aircraft were only 20 seconds from crashing. "Certainly at this point in time nobody has all the facts to make such a statement. It's speculative at best."
AAP