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A near miss runway incursion at Sydney Airport has been categorised at the most serious level on an international scale, as investigators reveal predictions of “elevated fatigue risks” for staff at the time.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released four preliminary reports on Wednesday related to six recent incidents at Sydney Airport.
The reports do not make findings or recommendations, but set out the sequence of events and operational context in which the incidents took place, Australian Transport Safety Bureau Commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
“In all six incidents, safety defences operated in some form. Air traffic controllers, pilots, or ground crew acted to prevent more serious outcomes. Nonetheless, we need to understand why those interventions were required,” Mitchell said.
The first incident, involving a Boeing 747 and a Bombardier DCH-8, on the morning of July 27, has been assessed as a “Cat A runway incursion”.
“The most serious level on the international scale, and only the third such incident in Australia since our records began in 2003,” Mitchell said.
Air traffic control staffing levels have been strained globally and emerged as “a recurring line of inquiry” during the investigations at Sydney Airport, Mitchell said.
“I will stress that we have not determined whether staffing resources directly contributed to any occurrence, or whether they were simply underlying conditions that were effectively being managed by Airservices [Australia].
“However, our report also notes that Airservices’ own roster modelling predicted elevated fatigue risks for staff at the time of many of the occurrences, in some cases applicable to multiple personnel on the shift,” Mitchell said.
Measures put in place to manage the risks are being examined as the ATSB probes “whether recent events reflected a growing trend or a more localised issue to Sydney”.
More to come
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Jack Gramenz is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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