Senator XENOPHON: Okay. I would be grateful for copies of those. I just want to ask a question that I asked in another committee, to the Bureau of Meteorology, and it relates to the emergency landing of a Virgin Australia 737 at Mildura in June of this year—is that familiar?—and the ATSB has provided a preliminary report. I was a bit unclear—I did not quite understand the bureau's response—as to who has responsibility for the automated weather information services. I thought, initially, the answer was that Airservices Australia did. But who actually has responsibility for the AWISs?
Mr Hood : Senator, we are also obviously doing our own follow-up on the fog incidents in Adelaide and in Mildura. My understanding is that the airport is responsible for the maintenance of the AWIS, but we are following that up and if clarification is required of which agency is responsible—
Senator XENOPHON: So it is not necessarily the Bureau of Meteorology, it is not Airservices Australia; it is the actual airport?
Mr Hood : That is my understanding. But I am happy to take that on notice and provide a full response in relation to that.
CHAIR: Just pausing there, why would that plane—is this the one that held over the airport and then did an illegal landing?
Senator XENOPHON: Well, it wasn't illegal; it was all about running out of fuel.
CHAIR: Yes, but you wouldn't—
Senator XENOPHON: He was under the minimum.
CHAIR: But why, in god's name? It could have gone to bloody Woomera or anywhere else. Why did it hang around there if the weather was ****?
Mr Hood : Senator, we are also obviously—
Senator XENOPHON: Did Hansard get the expletive on your part, Chair?
CHAIR: But it's true. That could have been a fatal—just with a simple decision—
Senator STERLE: With the greatest of respect, Mr Hood was about ready to answer and you just both jumped in on him.
CHAIR: No, no.
Senator STERLE: I reckon he could mix it with the pair of you!
CHAIR: There is no simple answer. It was not very sensible to hold it—
Senator STERLE: Chair, he didn't get the opportunity! He was just about ready to answer and then Senator Xenophon picked up on your choice of language and then you were all into it.
CHAIR: But you will—
Senator STERLE: You are doing it again. He hasn't got the answer.
CHAIR: I haven't finished the question.
Senator STERLE: You did. You just spoke then.
CHAIR: You will concede that the guy could have diverted to Woomera or somewhere instead of risking a landing that could have been a catastrophe.
Mr Hood : There are over four million aircraft movements in Australia a year, very few of which cause us significant concern. I think it is fair to say this is a concerning incident. We are cooperating fully with the ATSB.
It is our hope that the ATSB will establish all of the facts and make appropriate recommendations, on which we will act. { Don't hold your breath on that one Hoody!
}
Senator XENOPHON: These AWISs, the automatic weather information services: who on earth owns them, controls them, is responsible for them? I am not any wiser now than I was this morning when I asked the Bureau of Meteorology. I am just trying to work it out.
Ms Staib : We will take that on notice. As we said, we believe it is the airport's responsibility, but we will confirm that.
Senator XENOPHON: So who runs Mildura Airport?
Mr Mrdak : Mildura council.
Mr Hood : I suppose this is one of the issues that is a line of inquiry for the ATSB. Anything that needs clarifying—these are the things that get uncovered in an incident such as this.
Senator XENOPHON: From an operational point of view—the functioning of an automatic weather information service—the information from that is something that gets fed to air traffic control, correct?
Mr Hood : Yes. We can interrogate the automatic weather information service.
Senator XENOPHON: No. Is the automatic weather information service something that air traffic controllers have access to or does it only go to the pilot? How does it work?
Mr Hood : It would take a lengthy explanation, but—
Senator XENOPHON: Give me a short one.
CHAIR: It is afternoon tea time, so make it short.
Mr Hood : Primarily, our responsibility is the passing of terminal area forecasts and amended terminal area forecasts to the aviation industry and also meteorological products on request.
Senator XENOPHON: If it is clearly relevant to air traffic control and the control of airspace—you know, if an airport is fogged in—is there a role for Air Services Australia, is there an obligation on Air Services Australia, to monitor whether an automatic weather information service is operating or not? Because apparently, as I understand it, in Mildura it was broken.
Mr Hood : That is how I understand it also, and it is a line of inquiry—
Senator XENOPHON: Don't you know about those sorts of things?
Mr Hood : Is currently a line of inquiry for our procedures team as well. We are looking at that aspect.
Senator XENOPHON: So I've got to wait for next estimates.
CHAIR: I propose we go to afternoon tea.
Mr Mrdak : Chair, I think Mr Wolfe can solve at least part of Senator Xenophon's mystery of the ownership of the system.
Senator XENOPHON: And control and supervision.
Mr Wolfe : I will be brief. The automatic weather information service, the AWIS, is as Mr Hood has indicated the responsibility of the airport operator. Inside the AWIS is an AWS, an automatic weather station, which is the Bureau of Meteorology's responsibility. The transmitter on top is the airport's; the weather station is BoM's.
CHAIR: The thing that beggars me is how you can hold till you run out of fuel. Why, when you are coming to the point of a safe diversion, don't you get to buggery and divert? Why would you hold till you run out of fuel, unless you had a suicide mission in mind? Thank you, very much. We will come back after afternoon tea.
Mr Mrdak : That is precisely what the ATSB is now examining.
CHAIR: That is crazy. Someone should get the bullet over that.