Qantas pilot reveals details of near miss over South Australia
An investigation has been launched into yesterday's near miss between two Qantas passenger jets over the great Australian Bite in South Australia
Source: AM | Duration: 3min 6sec
ELIZABETH JACKSON: An investigation has been launched into yesterday's near miss between two Qantas passenger jets over the Great Australian Bite in South Australia.
Qantas pilot and vice-president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, Richard Woodward, says there are now lots of questions which need answers.
RICHARD WOODWARD: They will interview the air traffic controller that gave the airways clearance. They'll interview the two crews of the aircraft to see what happened in the situation, to see when they asked for climb clearance, what they saw on the aircraft, and what they heard from the aircraft. And they'll try and work out the timings of events and how they got into that situation.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: And what do you know at this point about what happened yesterday?
RICHARD WOODWARD: I gather that one aircraft was eastbound and one aircraft was westbound. They're normally separated by 1,000 feet vertically. One of the aircraft, the lower one, asked for clearance to climb; the air traffic controller gave that clearance. And as they started the climb, they got a collision warning alert from the aircraft and they took evasive action, and they missed by a reasonable distance, it doesn't sound like a lot, about 700 feet or so.
They resolved the situation then continued on their way.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Is it a case, do you think, of a one off human error or is there something more systemic that's gone wrong here?
RICHARD WOODWARD: I gather the air traffic controller's been what's called 'stood down,' in other words, removed from duties, while they do the investigation. But that's pretty standard in these situations.
There has been a number of what we call breakdown of separations over the last few years due to a number of errors in the system. This particular one is concerning because the collision warning computer is sort of the last line of defence. At that altitude and that speed, it's very difficult for the crews to see and take avoiding action. The aircraft's doing a kilometre every two seconds or so when they're closing on each other like that.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: So do we know, was there something wrong with the traffic collision avoidance system?
RICHARD WOODWARD: No, it worked as advertised as far as I've heard. The aircraft will tell you that there's traffic out there, and then if it needs to take what's called a resolution advisory, in other words, to try and resolve the conflict between the two aircraft, it will give both aircraft climb or descend commands to avoid each other.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: So in this instance, it appears as though the computer alerted the pilots to the presence of each other, rather than a pilot actually looking out the window and seeing a plane headed for them.
RICHARD WOODWARD: That's exactly right. That's the situation I'm waiting to hear from. If they were cruising in cloud, there's no chance of seeing each other. If you're in clear air, there is a reasonable chance of seeing each other. But as I said the combined closing speed is about a kilometre every two seconds, so the aircraft could commence the climb 30 or 40 kilometres out and it would be very difficult for you to see the other aircraft, but you'd be within less than a minute of each other.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: And as near misses go, just how close was this one?
RICHARD WOODWARD: Oh, it is reasonably that it's the - if the collision warning computer goes off, it is effectively the last line of defence. It means the system's broken down.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Qantas pilot and vice-president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, Richard Woodward.