I repeatedly read here that had MDX waited a minute or completed an orbit he would have received a clearance. Quoting from Harry Howard's letter to Channel 7, that does not appear to be correct, and I would be interested to learn why it is being said.
"0853.19 Sector One controller to FIS 5 "before you go on we are not NVMC so clearance will not be available in controlled area.
"It wont"
"Not in my airspace anyway"
In the above exchange, Sydney FIS 5 asks Sydney Air Traffic Control Sector 1 (S1) for an onwards clearance for MDX to enter the Sydney controlled airspace after the Williamtown transit is complete. S1 responds that the clearance will not be available because Sydney control area is not Night VMC (Night Visual Meteorological Conditions - in other words a pilot must fly visually and clear of cloud). So the clearance issued by Williamtown Tower to Sydney Flight Service was never transmitted to the aircraft due to Sydney Sector 1 involvement. As a result, three minutes later at 0856, MDX, with no clearance issued by FIS 5 through Williamtown airspace, tracked from Taree to Craven then Singleton and into bad weather where some 45 minutes later the aircraft crashed in the Barrington Tops."
In any case if clearance had become available "in a minute or two", MDX had not flown up a one way tunnel. I am sure he would have happily accepted a clearance even after proceeding on his "required' (but not preferred) flight planned track had one been offered. Where is the evidence that a clearance was about to materialize please?
Last edited by Bill Pike; 7th Jun 2014 at 01:19.
Reason: typos