Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION:
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1116709.htm
Broadcast: 26/05/2004
Close calls place airspace system under close scrutiny
Reporter: Sarah Clarke
KERRY O'BRIEN: It's been controversial from the outset -- the introduction of the new national airspace system over Australian skies.
Just six months after it started there have been three major midair incidents.
Tonight we reveal details of a subsequent close encounter.
As a result of the three earlier incidents, the aviator regulator has this week been forced to dilute some of its key initial reforms affecting major airports and restore controlled airspace for passenger jets.
But the battle over the contentious new system, which allows light aircraft to share airspace with commercial planes, isn't over yet.
As the Government winds back some of the new rules, some regional airports are already gearing up to fight the next wave of airspace reform, which will be imposed across Australia in coming months.
This report from Sarah Clarke of the ABC's investigative unit.
SARAH CLARKE: Just two weeks ago, three aircraft came within seconds of a midair collision at one of Australia's busiest regional airports.
The ABC has obtained details of the close encounter at Coffs Harbour on May 13.
A Virgin 737 and an Eastern Airlines passenger plane were coming into land when a light aircraft was observed 1,000 feet below heading directly into their flight path.
The Cessna did not show up on air traffic control radar because its identification transponder was not switched on.
TED LANG, CIVIL AIR: In this case, the aircraft was completely invisible to us.
It's a bit like a car driving at night without its lights.
SARAH CLARKE: Fortunately, the Eastern Airlines crew was able to take evasive action.
The Virgin Blue 737 followed suit.
CAPTAIN AL ADKINS, COMMERCIAL PILOT: We now have a situation where there's large airlines, up to 737-A320 standard carrying up to 170 passengers who are having to take avoiding action on light aircraft who are not announcing their position.
SARAH CLARKE: For the past six months Coffs Harbour, like many other major airports across the country, has been operating under a controversial new system, which allows light aircraft to have uncontrolled access to airspace also used by commercial services.
Light aircraft no longer have to identify themselves or their intentions to other pilots or air traffic controllers.
DICK SMITH, NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION GROUP: We've made it simpler because if you look at Europe and the United States if you make it simpler you get greater compliance and high levels of safety.
SARAH CLARKE: But after investigations into three earlier midair incidents above Brisbane, Launceston and Melbourne, Air Services Australia, the body responsible for air traffic control, has decided to reintroduce controlled airspace around the nation's busiest airports.
Despite this setback, the Government is pressing ahead with plans to extend airspace reform to more than 80 regional airports later this year.
CAPTAIN AL ADKINS: The same type of incidents, in our opinion, are going to occur but the severity of them will be even more, we believe, because there's no radar coverage at a lot of the regional airports we fly to and also transponders, which help us pick up other light aircraft, are not mandated either.
SARAH CLARKE: Captain Al Adkins is a former fighter pilot who now flies 737s for a commercial airline.
He warns that pilots will be forced to rely on what was once considered a last resort procedure -- see and avoid.
CAPTAIN AL ADKINS: The only time we'll pick them up is when they appear in our windscreens at close range and we have to take avoiding action, if, indeed, we see them at all before we collide with them.
DICK SMITH: The commercial pilot, every pilot has always had to look out because people make errors.
Air traffic controllers make errors.
You've always had to look out.
There is now less need to do that because we will have more people complying with radio procedures, more people complying with transponder procedures because it is all simpler.
SARAH CLARKE: But it's not only pilots who are speaking out against the new airspace system.
Mike Caplehorn is chairman of Broome International Airport.
MIKE CAPLEHORN, BROOME INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT GROUP: They're going way back to the square one.
The aircraft don't even need a radio and you can come into an airport any time you want.
Now, if that happens at the same time that a large jet is going down and coming into that airport, then you have a very, very serious chance of a major crash.
It's not just Broome -- we're talking about Karratha, we're talking about Kalgoorlie, we talking about Ayres Rock, we're talking about a lot of our major regional airports and, quite frankly, it's crazy.
SARAH CLARKE: With 250,000 air passengers travelling to this popular holiday destination in north-western Australia each year, Broome Airport's private owners commissioned an expert panel to perform an independent safety study and one that could have implications for 80 other airports.
It concluded that the new system would significantly raise the risk of midair collision, in return for a saving to passengers of just over $1 per return ticket.
MIKE CAPLEHORN: It's a 500 per cent jump in risk.
500 per cent, and that costs you $1.
For $1 that we charge a passenger, we can increase their safety by 500 per cent and Dick wants us to unwind it and that's why we will fight all the way to the courts.
We will not unwind it.
DICK SMITH: We've had mandatory broadcast zones for over 10 years.
There has been thousands of incidents where pilots are not on radio in mandatory broadcast zones, including airlines.
If we go to this new system, which the plan is in November, it will be safer because people will have to comply with the law for the first time or be fined $5,000.
That's got to be an improvement.
SARAH CLARKE: Broome Airport's management is now clashing head-to-head with former Civil Aviation Safety Authority chairman Dick Smith, a key member of the Government advisory board pushing for change.
MIKE CAPLEHORN: Now, Dick is a very good, intuitive businessman.
He's a famous adventurer and, personally, I quite like him but unfortunately when it comes to this area, he appears to be obsessed and last week my CEO, Kim Maisey, received a call from Dick Smith and he said, "Tell Mike that whatever he does to me, "I'm going to do 10 times worse to him."
DICK SMITH: He's worried about the profits of his airport.
Good on him, right -- and he tries to make out that he's driven by safety.
He owns the airport.
He has to get a return.
He makes a profit out of the airport.
He doesn't want change.
SARAH CLARKE: A suggestion Broome International Airport Group denies.
The ABC has obtained a letter from Transport Minister John Anderson to Dick Smith, which suggests Mr Smith was keen to avoid an official study of the safety implications of the new airspace regulations, also known in the industry as a design safety case.
The letter said: "I have noted your concerns that if a design safety case is performed "it will not be accepted by CASA."
Then a brief from the Transport Department to Minister, which said: "Dick Smith will oppose any finding "that a design safety case is required "as it has the potential to delay the current implementation timetable."
DICK SMITH: They say, "Oh, we need to do a design safety case," and then they never finish it.
It's a classic bureaucratic ploy.
Now I'm not going to be into that.
SARAH CLARKE: With just six months until the changes come into effect, the battle over regional airport safety appears destined for the courts.
MIKE CAPLEHORN: Let me make myself very, very clear on this point.
If anyone tries to force us to do a negligent act, we will take it to the High Court.
As far as we can take it, that is where we'll go.
We are not going to be there realising that we allowed something to happen that has now killed women, children and men because we didn't have the guts to take it as far as we could.
DICK SMITH: People resist change -- it's very human -- but once they've been able to use a new system, especially if it's proven around the world, you suddenly find they start to say, "Oh, this is actually working, it actually is better."
CAPTAIN AL ADKINS: In the long run, in, say, 5 or 10 years time, the safety levels will be so low that there'll be a good chance of us having midair collisions with light aircraft in regional airports especially.
KERRY O'BRIEN: That report from Sarah Clarke.