Perhaps that very statistic is trying to say something.
Good point. Normally used late at night when everyone is a bit tired.
Bedder:
So, "not that much traffic in Hkg..." at that time eh? I'd like to sit you in the tower on a night shift and ask you your thoughts at 7 the next morning....maybe you wouldn't be quite so quick to give advice! Just remember my friend, that what you are hearing on the air is only a small percentage of our workload, and considering our reduced staffing levels (haven't you noticed the combined tower positions?) on Nights, they're not much fun!
You are right Bedder, it is quite busy late at night. Especially when I hear one radar controller for departures and arrivals - and they are routing everybody over the same spot, BEKOL Europe departures and all the arrivals from the East. I often wondered why the ELATO arrivals don't go further south over the water to get them below the departures. Having everyone go over TD is very dangerous in my opinion. The fact that departures are leveling at 9000 when they are climbing pretty fast (min clean or 250) is just screaming for a TCAS RA. Not to mention many crews are lazy / unaware and do not reduce their climb rate below 1500 FPM. At the very least they should have two controllers, one for arrivals and one for departures - bare minimum.
But I digress. What I meant is that it is not as busy as during the earlier night period. It sounds like what makes it very busy is the way they choose to staff the tower. Sounds like it is quite busy for the controller, but not so busy traffic wise. One guy working CLNC, GRND and TWR is just not enough for such a big airport. Honestly, you would think an airport of HKG's stature would have the funds for such requirements.
Overall, my point is that we need to re-think our strategy. If it has happened so many times recently then there must be a better way to do it. Saying that we should just do our job properly is not good enough. Maybe a simple restriction that you don't give TO clearance until the aircraft is holding short, or maybe don't turn the red stop bars off until the aircraft is really close to them.
I know this probably adds to the task-load of the tower controller but it seems that it will prevent disaster at some stage. All these incidents were prevented because the ATC was not distracted. Throw a little distraction into the mix and you have all the holes in the swiss cheese lining up perfectly.