From The Australian 15.4.04
Air safety incidents rising: union
April 15, 2004
DATA showing 360 air safety incidents were recorded in February - the highest number in more than a year - was released by the air traffic controllers' union today.
The union released the figures following claims by Aviation Reform Group member Dick Smith that new airspace rules had improved air safety and that controllers had failed to prevent a recent safety incident.
Australian Air Traffic Control Association president Ted Lang said the Federal Government's electronically-submitted incident report showed safety incidents had risen since new airspace rules were introduced in November.
He said the February figure came on top of 330 incidents in January.
This was despite a decline in the area where reportable incidents could occur, Mr Lang said.
"With the introduction of NAS (National Airspace System), there was a fundamental change to the amount of airspace where notifiable incidents could occur," he told AAP.
"You've actually reduced the area where problems can occur, and we're actually seeing an increase in incidents."
Mr Lang's comments follow a number of recent safety incidents, including one off Brisbane last week, in which a Virgin Blue aircraft was allowed to descend to within 400 feet of another plane.
Mr Smith told Brisbane radio 4BC this morning that air traffic controllers conduct in relation to the incident was "basically criminal".
However, Mr Lang said controllers were operating within the rules, and the incident occurred because there was nothing to prevent it under the new system.
Under the new National Airspace System, light aircraft and jets could fly in the same airspace without communicating with air traffic control.
Comment was being sought from the Aviation Reform Group.
Oh and Baldricks Mum, the big deal is that there was an RA ie Collision Avoidance because the primary means of separation, see and avoid, failed. NAS relies on this and it is less safe than before and more exepnsive.