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.

FMI: www.aipa.org.au, www.airservices.gov.au