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JOINT MEDIA STATEMENT
Safety alarm over airspace change delay
Three aviation organisations today jointly urged Transport Minister John Anderson to implement measures now to restore safety in Australia’s airspace.

The Airservices Australia industry-wide Hazard Identification Workshop in Sydney yesterday was told fundamental changes to the National Airspace System could take six months.

Although the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA), the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) and Civil Air welcomed the changes, all three expressed alarm about the delay and believe the process can be accelerated.

“For at least another six months Australia will have an airspace that has significant safety deficiencies, leaving open the very real possibility that the Launceston near-collision – or worse - could happen again at any time,” Civil Air President Ted Lang said. “They are gambling against the odds of nothing going wrong in the meantime, despite numerous documented incidents.”

Captain Richard Woodward, Technical and Safety Director of AIPA, said: “It is imperative that interim safety measures are introduced for the safety of the traveling public.”

Captain Richard Higgins, AFAP President, said: “We call upon Airservices Australia and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to sit down with us immediately and draw up a plan to make our airspace as safe as possible, as quickly as possible, as six months more of this chaos is not acceptable.”

Transport Minister John Anderson has refused to consider a plan prepared by the three organizations late last year that could immediately resolve significant NAS-related safety issues.

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