The ATSB is inquiring into an 8 January incident in which a Qantas 737-800 flying from Brisbane to Sydney and a Virgin Australia 737-800, flying from Sydney to Brisbane were sent on near head-on courses while deviating around bad weather near Tamworth.
This is the ATSB summary.
A Boeing 737 maintaining FL330 was approved to deviate around weather when it came into potential conflict with another Boeing 737 on climb to FL330, also deviating due to weather. The air traffic control short term conflict alert activated as the two aircraft approached from near opposite directions.
There were towering thunderheads in the area at the time.
The ATSB has flagged a number of investigations into air traffic separation incidents in recent years, some of which have produced final reports identifying training and performance issues in AirServices Australia.
So far, the ATSB hasn’t notified an investigation of a ground traffic incident at Sydney Airport on 6 January in which an Emirates A380 blocked the main north-south runway while a Japan Airlines 777-200 was starting its takeoff roll. The Japan Airlines flight abandoned its takeoff at low speed, while the incident caused a Malaysia Airines 747-400 to go around as it approached the same runway for a landing, and observed that the A380/777 situation would not clear the runway before it made its intended touch down.
The ATSB has a large backlog of active aviation investigations in train and a very clear case for additional resources appears to exist.
The independent air safety investigator is also in a situation in which it determined that one incident, in which safe flying crew resource management or CRM broke down badly in one Jetstar flight in July, merited an inquiry, yet another CRM failure in another Jetstar flight in November didn’t.
Two CRM failures in Jetstar cockpits in four months, which point in common to inadequately trained pilots being allowed to occupy the first officer seat of Jetstar flights, suggest a pattern and both need to be investigated in the public interest.
