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Air traffic controllers on duty at Sydney Airport when a Virgin 737 aborted take-off to avoid a collision were not trainees, Airservices CEO Rob Sharp has said.
At a press conference in Canberra, Sharp told reporters that the tower controllers were experienced ATCs undergoing an endorsement process, and said Airservices had not believed the incident met the threshold for its mandatory reporting requirements.
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“The controllers were under what is called an endorsement process, so they weren’t trainees. They were very experienced controllers undertaking a regular endorsement process. There was also a qualified controller supervising,” he said.
“There’s a regular safety process we have with controllers where they complete endorsements on a regular basis. We had two experienced controllers in the tower that day. That wasn’t training per se.”
In a statement, Airservices detailed the sequence of events that had occurred on Sunday 9 August and said it was “unable to comment further before the ATSB releases its final assessment”.
“While VA555 was cleared to take off, that clearance was cancelled immediately by our controller and the Virgin aircraft remained at the starting end of the runway, around 1.3km distant from the Qantas aircraft that was crossing from a taxiway,” a spokesperson said.
“The staff member who issued the initial take-off clearance was an experienced controller undertaking a regular endorsement check supervised by another qualified controller, who immediately directed the cancellation to be issued.
“Take-off clearance was subsequently re-issued and VA555 successfully took off from where it was positioned at the end of the runway.
“Our initial review determined the supervising controller immediately identified the potential for conflict and directed the controller to cancel the take-off clearance prior to the pilot commencing take-off.”
In the press conference, Sharp noted three reasons why the incident had not been judged to have met mandatory reporting requirements.
“Firstly, the controller immediately rescinded the clearance. They recognised there was a Qantas aircraft 1.3 kilometres away approaching the runway,” he said.
“Secondly, the aircraft remained stationary. Thirdly, the distance of 1.3 kilometres is quite substantial.
“Based on those criteria, it didn’t meet the mandatory reporting requirements from our perspective. However, we’re quite open to reviewing the data surrounding it. If there are improvements to be made, we will make them, but that was the review decision at the time.”
The incident followed two other near-misses at Sydney Airport in recent weeks, including one where a Jetstar A320 had been forced to brake hard while taxiing to avoid colliding with a Qatar Airways aircraft crossing its path.
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