Chief of Air Force response to ATSB report
AIR FORCE COMMITMENT TO AIR TRAFFIC SAFETY
Safety is one of the most important priorities in our workplace every day – it underpins all of our work practices. Not only is it important for our work colleagues and their families, but for members of our community as well.
Recent media reporting on the safety of our air traffic control, has used ‘loss of separation (LOS)’ statistics from an ATSB report, and incorrectly assumed these events have a direct correlation to safety.
The ATSB report found that Moorabin and Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport had the highest LOS figures in Australia, yet the ATSB made no recommendations regarding either airspace. Similarly, the ATSB report made no recommendations regarding civil airspace, despite more than 80 percent of LOS occurring in that airspace.
More than 97 percent of LOS incidents in military airspace involved ‘Nil’ or ‘Minimal’ collision risk or were attributable to pilot error. Only three of the LOS incidents attributable to military air traffic control had ‘Elevated’ collision risk. By contrast, the report fails to address the 40 LOS incidents with ‘Some’ or ‘Elevated’ collision risk that occurred in civil tower/terminal Area airspace.
Military-controlled airspace is inherently different to civilian-controlled airspace - with high traffic peaks but low overall aircraft movement statistics, diverse aircraft types and constrained airspace – which makes a statistical comparison a flawed way to assess safety.
I am absolutely committed to ensuring our airspace is as safe as possible – for our own aircrew and the more than 200,000 civilian aircraft movements that transit through our military airspace each year. Our ATC workforce is highly skilled, and unlike our civil colleagues, our ATC workforce rapidly deploy around the world at short notice assisting our neighbours in times of need – from the Philippines, to Haiti, Sumatra or closer to home at Innisfail.
I am proud of Air Force’s safety culture. We will continue to scrutinise air safety incident trends and take decisive action to reduce the likelihood of incidents, as part of the robust and comprehensive regulatory regime comprised of Directorate General Technical Airworthiness (DGTA), Defence Airworthiness Coordination and Policy Agency (DACPA) and the Directorate of Defence Aviation and Air Force Safety (DDAFS) to keep the skies safe for everyone.
GC Brown, AO
Air Marshal
Chief of Air Force
21 Jul 2014