Group Asks For Airspace Changes
An Australian pilots'
association is calling for Airservices Australia to go further with
changes to improve controversial airspace regulations introduced by
the Australian federal government. New safety measures have been
announced in response to concerns over the regulations, which
allowed light planes and jets to fly in the same airspace without
having to communicate with air traffic controllers.
The changes include giving pilots new charts of local air
traffic control frequencies and using transportable radar to extend
surveillance. But the Australian and International Pilots'
Association's Richard Woodward says the regulations need further
improvement.
"I'm hoping that those changes are just the beginning of a
series of changes that are required to improve the safety of the
system," Mr Woodward said. "We've asked for some more fundamental
changes of both Airservices and [the Civil Aviation Safety
Authority] and those ones that have been publicly released are just
the beginning, or I'm hoping are just the beginning."
Woodward says pilots say they will consider taking control of
air safety unless further changes are made.
"We'd hate to take the safety management of the airspace in our
own hands but if we believe it's not safe then we would certainly
take measures to protect the travelling public."
In September 203, the pilots' group said Australia's new "hit
and miss" national air traffic control system had the potential to
kill more than a hundred passengers in a single collision.
Conveying their obvious concern over changes to the National
Airspace System (NSA) to be implemented next month, the pilots
association said forcing pilots to literally keep an eye out for
other aircraft elevated the collision risk.
"The aircraft closing
speeds are quite high, you're descending and you're doing checks
and getting the aircraft ready to land ... and it just increases
the workload at a very busy time," Australian and International
Pilots' Association (AIPA) safety officer Richard Woodward told
journalists. "It would be like trying to adjust the radio ... at
the same time as trying to answer your mobile phone and drive the
car on the expressway."
The new rules, adapted from a US model, would allow light
aircraft to operate below 10,000 feet without radio or radar
contact, or notifying air traffic controllers of their flight plan,
Woodward explained. Aircraft could fly into the path of commercial
aircraft, another industry group warned.
"The ultimate consequence some time down the road would be a
collision and our modern airliners carry 150 people so there would
be 150 or 160 dead bodies and ... ultimately someone will be
looking for someone to blame," Woodward said.