Air Chief Geoff Brown Wants Defence Reform

[Dick Smith]

Great article in The Australian newspaper this morning headed Air Chief Geoff Brown Wants Defence Reform, states:

“Australia’s Air Force Chief has called for a major shake-up of Defence, saying the organisation is hamstrung by inefficient systems that reduce co-operation and slow projects”.

In a frank and illuminating speech from a service commander that will not be popular with many in the Defence Department, Air Marshal Geoff Brown said it was time for a serious overhaul and the Abbott government’s promised “root and branch” review was an enormous opportunity for Defence to sort itself out.

Good on the Air Force Chief! It would be great if something could be done in relation to Williamtown!

[Shagpile]

Dick I think he means regarding major acquisition and project management.

The sad truth is that if CAF can't make things happen, we're doomed.

[Arm out the window]

The Defence Reform Program should have already fixed everything, relax!

Re Williamtown, I believe the plan is to double the size of the airspace and close up those gaps where those civvies can sneak through ... easy now Dick!

[Dick Smith]

Yair yair. Get rid of us taxpayers that pay defense salaries!

[oldpinger]

Alternatively there's this;
From defence.gov.au

Statement from Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Brown AO – Sunday Night (1 June 2014)

2 June 2014 | On the Record
On 1 June, Channel 7’s Sunday Night program aired claims by Dick Smith, incorrectly claiming Royal Australian Air Force contributed to the crash of VH-MDX in 1981.

While the death of the pilot and passengers is tragic, and I hope the search for them will bring closure for their families, Air Force cannot speculate as to why the pilot of VH-MDX chose to not fly through Williamtown airspace, as was done by numerous other civilian aircraft at the time of the accident.

The program acknowledged that the aircraft had mechanical issues and instrument failures, including a failed altitude indicator, automatic direction finder and vacuum pump.

The [then] Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (now the Australian Transport Safety Bureau), which investigated the incident at the time, found no fault with RAAF or military air traffic control. The facts of the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation into the VH-MDX accident on 9 August 1981 are available via the National Archives of Australia.

On the evening of the disappearance of VH-MDX, Williamtown Air Traffic Control immediately offered a clearance for VH-MDX at an amended altitude (of 7,000 feet or 9,000 feet) to ensure separation with a preceding civilian aircraft (at 8,000 feet) that was already inside Williamtown airspace. This was done without delay and more than 30 minutes before VH-MDX reported entering bad weather.

It is incorrect to claim that Air Force caused VH-MDX to fly an unsuitable track. The presence of civilian aircraft in Williamtown airspace demonstrates that civilian aircraft were permitted to transit Williamtown airspace.

Contrary to the program’s story, civilian aircraft can and do fly through Williamtown airspace every day. Williamtown Air Traffic Control handles more than 34,000 civilian aircraft movements through the Williamtown airspace each year, including 1.2 million passengers who use the Newcastle airport terminal situated at RAAF Base Williamtown.

For civil aircraft flying visually through Williamtown airspace, Air Force created three specific flight paths that are designed to provide civilian access to Williamtown airspace and to deconflict with military and other civilian aircraft.

Air Force operates a multi-layered air traffic control system which is regulated by a comprehensive regime of independent audits and evaluations and is integrated with Australia’s national Air Traffic Management network

It is routine to restrict access to military airspace for both safety and security reasons. Such restrictions provide separation from hazardous environments including air weapons ranges. In fact, Australia is more generous than many nations, allowing civilian access when requested and whenever safety and security allow; and we operate formal airspace sharing arrangements at Williamtown, Darwin and Townsville.

In an emergency, civil aircraft can access defence airspace and airfields for emergency landings.

The story also implied that VH-MDX was unreasonably requested to hold. Aircraft are routinely required by civilian and military Air Traffic Control to hold or adjust the aircraft’s track, altitude or speed, to ensure separation is maintained with preceding and higher priority military and civilian aircraft. The likelihood of holding is increased for aircraft that do not submit a flight plan because the aircraft’s data needs to be manually entered into the Air Traffic Control system.

Attributing this tragedy to the Air Force is sensationalist and incorrect and I note that the program did not seek any comment or clarification from either Air Force or Defence in relation to this incident. It is disappointing that these unsubstantiated claims were aired on national television.

Air Marshal Geoff Brown AO
Chief of Air Force

post
Issued by Ministerial and Executive Coordination and Communication,
Department of Defence,
Canberra, ACT

[500N]

"Dick I think he means regarding major acquisition and project management.
The sad truth is that if CAF can't make things happen, we're doomed."



Bring DMO under the CDF !

[Arm out the window]

Well said, Dog Biscuit or his staff officers. Seems pretty clear, minimal spin.

[Dick Smith]

If you are going to run Geoff Brown's Media Release again, I thought I would at least run my Media Release again .....


Dick Smith Comments
on
Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Brown’s Media Release Dated Monday 2 June 2014

Dick Smith says, “AIR MARSHAL BROWN - REMOVE THE CIVILIAN FLIGHT PLANNING RESTRICTION BEFORE MORE LIVES ARE LOST”.

The Air Marshal is clearly ill informed. This is a damning reflection on the advice Air Marshal Brown receives. Let me quote from Air Marshal Brown’s Media Release:

“The likelihood of holding is increased for aircraft that do not submit a flight plan because the aircraft's data needs to be manually entered into the Air Traffic Control system”.

By this, Air Marshal Brown clearly means that pilots should submit a flight plan if they want to fly the safer, more direct route over Williamtown so that delays are reduced and safety is improved.

By flying over Williamtown, Pilots are not forced – as was VH-MDX on that terrible night – to fly to the west of Williamtown into the mountainous area of the Barrington Tops where high winds can turn a plane upside-down.

However, Air Marshal Brown clearly doesn’t know that military enforced regulations mean it is not possible for a civilian pilot to file such a flight plan. That is why I stated on the Channel 7 Sunday Night program,

“The restrictions are still there. You can’t file a flight plan across the top of Williamtown”.

I then went on to say,

“You can do something with this show if we can get these rules changed, as they will save lives in the future”.

Now, remember on the night of the VH-MDX crash, the pilot was forced by the regulations to file his flight plan to the west of the Williamtown military airspace towards the treacherous country near Barrington Tops.

The regulations of those days remain the same today. It was prohibited then, as it is now, to file a flight plan over Williamtown.

Air Marshal Brown just happens to omit this very important point from his Media Release - so I will say it again – a civilian pilot cannot file a flight plan over Williamtown! That means that the likelihood of holding will always be increased because the Williamtown Controller has no prior knowledge of the aircraft that is about to call for clearance. This is ridiculous in these modern days of technology!

In yet another major error, Air Marshal Brown states that,

“Williamtown Air Traffic Control immediately offered a clearance for VH-MDX at an amended altitude (of 7,000 feet or 9,000 feet) …. This was done without delay and more than 30 minutes before VH-MDX reported entering bad weather”.

In fact, this offer was made by the military Controller to the Sydney Flight Service Operator but it was never passed on to the Pilot! If the Pilot did not know of the offer, how could he possibly accept it?

Once the military remove the restrictions on Australian civilian pilots, there will be a clear message that they are allowed to fly the safest route possible, i.e. over the low terrain coastal area at Williamtown rather than being forced to the west into the Barrington Tops mountains as MDX was thirty years ago and as pilots are today.

I ask Air Marshal Brown to remove this restriction before more lives are lost.

[flying-spike]

"Yair yair. Get rid of us taxpayers that pay defense salaries"
Just to set thing right Dick. Defence members, except on operational deployment also pay tax. Come to think of it, for a period when I was in Defence my taxes would have been paying your salary at the CAA or did you donate your income to charity then?
Reservists don't pay income tax on their earnings either.

[TBM-Legend]

Open Letter to Channel Seven

Dear Channel Seven,

I was very disappointed to watch your interview with Mr. Dick Smith on the Channel Seven Sunday Night production on the flight of aircraft VH-MDX which crashed in the Barrington Tops in August 1981. In the programme, you denigrate the military air traffic controllers at Williamtown and I am left very concerned about an honest, objective and balanced view. Dick Smith stated in the programme that the RAAF ‘sent these five people to their deaths’. On the Channel Seven Sunrise programme on Monday morning, Dick Smith also stated that RAAF Controllers were ‘concrete minded people’.

You should be aware that the whole truth was not told in your programme and you gave neither the Department of Defence nor any former military air traffic controller any opportunity to provide any balance to the story. You will be interested to know that despite Dick Smith’s statements about the failure of Williamtown to facilitate clearance through the Williamtown airspace for VH-MDX, the actual voice transcript of coordination between Sydney Flight Service Unit and Williamtown Tower that evening, indicates that Williamtown Tower approved the transit of MDX through the Williamtown airspace immediately the clearance was requested by Sydney Flight Service. ‘Why not’ was the immediate response from Williamtown when Sydney Flight Service requested an airways clearance.

To confirm my assertion, the actual transcript of audio recordings from the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI) records, available to the public in the National Archives:



In the above exchange, Sydney Flight Service (FIS 5) provides Williamtown Tower (WM) with the full flight details of MDX and asks if he can expect a clearance. Williamtown responds immediately - ‘why not’. A discussion then follows with a possible change of altitude because an earlier aircraft (VH-AZC) has already been cleared to transit Williamtown airspace at 8000 feet tracking from Taree to Williamtown. A confliction is possible so WM offers FIS 5 an alternate altitude for MDX of 9000 feet or 7000 feet to ensure that appropriate separation between MDX and AZC is maintained.

This immediate clearance issued by WM flies in the face of your programme assertion and Dick Smith’s statements that the RAAF ‘sent these five people to their deaths’.



Then more:
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.

None of this aspect of the MDX flight and Air Traffic Coordination was mentioned by Dick Smith or your programme. You seem to accept the inflammatory comments as the gospel truth however at no stage did you question or challenge the information provided by Dick Smith.

As Dick Smith is portrayed by the general public as a great Australian and an aviation expert, when he speaks, people listen and believe him. So the perception that the public would now have of the Williamtown (RAAF) controllers and (by association) every current Defence and former Defence controllers is that they (the controllers) have no interest in facilitating civil aircraft through military airspace. This is so far from the truth as military controllers at all Defence bases do their utmost to facilitate civil aircraft movements through military airspace.

To illustrate my point, in 1991, 10 years after the MDX accident, as an RAAF Reserve Officer, I was tasked by the Department of Defence in Canberra to travel to Williamtown specifically to collect data about civil aircraft transitting Williamtown airspace. During that task, I quantified the number of civil flights which requested transit clearance through Williamtown military airspace over a period of twelve days and what percentages were actually approved. The result of my research indicated that of 263 transit aircraft:

· 94.68% of civil transits were cleared through the airspace as requested.

· 3.04% of civil transits were cleared through the airspace via an amended clearance.

· 2.28% of civil transits were not cleared due to military traffic.

So, 97.72% of civil aircraft who requested transit of Williamtown airspace received approval. That is a totally different story from the one portrayed in your programme.

A significant public apology from your programme and an acknowledgement of the erroneous information portrayed would be greatly appreciated by many hundreds of current and former military air traffic controllers whose professionalism has been unfairly maligned by your biased programme.

Yours sincerely,



Harry Howard

Former Military Air Traffic Controller