Loss of separation between A330 VH-EBK & 787 G-ZBKF near Sydney 28 Sept 2022
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Loss of separation between A330 VH-EBK & 787 G-ZBKF near Sydney 28 Sept 2022
I couldn't find this Loss of Separation incident reported elsewhere on PPRuNe, hence started this thread. I can delete again if advised it is discussed elsewhere.
Became aware of the incident via Australian Aviation on-line article:
British Airways 787 and Qantas A330 fly too close – Australian Aviation
The recently released ATSB final report can be found at:
Loss of separation involving Airbus A330, VH-EBK, and Boeing 787, G-ZBKF near Sydney Airport, New South Wales on 28 September 2022 | ATSB
While I haven't read the actual report, Adam Thorn appears to provide a good summary of it in his article. The worry is what he wrote at the end of his article:
Became aware of the incident via Australian Aviation on-line article:
British Airways 787 and Qantas A330 fly too close – Australian Aviation
The recently released ATSB final report can be found at:
Loss of separation involving Airbus A330, VH-EBK, and Boeing 787, G-ZBKF near Sydney Airport, New South Wales on 28 September 2022 | ATSB
While I haven't read the actual report, Adam Thorn appears to provide a good summary of it in his article. The worry is what he wrote at the end of his article:
The ATSB final report notes that, in the last decade in Australia, there has been eight loss of separation occurrences involving aircraft cleared on a SID, where a following aircraft has climbed faster than the preceding aircraft.... Of these, six were at Sydney, and five involved the DEENA 7 SID.
“Airservices Australia has advised the DEENA 7 SID has been redesigned to remove the two conditional requirements of the procedure,” Macleod said.
“The changes are planned to be part of the first implementation package for Western Sydney International Airport, but as the timeframe for this implementation is unknown, the ATSB will continue to actively monitor this open safety issue.”
So why would a departure process be re-designed (presumably in light of safety issues having been identified) but seemingly then not introduced swiftly? I would hate to think ASTB now needs to 'actively monitor' this issue until there is an actual collision rather than 'only' the loss of separation between aircraft (already 6 of them for this particular departure route)!
Why did the controller think that an A330 on a 3-hour flight was going to weight like a 787 on an 8-hour flight?
It's a valid question. They quickly redesigned and introduced the G/A procedure for 34R after a QF 737 and A330 almost flew into each other over Mascot, and the final report isn't even out yet.
So why would a departure process be re-designed (presumably in light of safety issues having been identified) but seemingly then not introduced swiftly? I would hate to think ASTB now needs to 'actively monitor' this issue until there is an actual collision rather than 'only' the loss of separation between aircraft (already 6 of them for this particular departure route)!
Regardless of aircraft type, GAs due to a departing aircraft on the same runway are problematic.
Airbuses are not renowned for their climb performance!
Airbuses are not renowned for their climb performance!
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As on most twin engine aircraft the required thrust is dictated by single engine out climb rate at max take off weight, climb rates with both engines working will be very similar between manufacturers depending on take off weight. Four engine aircraft are a different story, as single engine out is not as limiting.
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Point is the SID was conditional on reaching an altitude. Different weights, different climb rates equals different turn points. Bear in mind this happened in Austronaut land where everything aviation has already been worked out. Maybe a delaying vector would have helped, maybe no system is perfect, total risk probably low here and also manageable with speed control. In any case closest distance is relative to stage of flight and local conditions and restrictions otherwise we would never have parallel ops or vfr ops on secondary runways.
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