Investigators probe fresh runway incidents at Sydney Airport

Investigators have opened probes into two fresh runway incidents at Sydney Airport, adding to the tally of safety incidents at the major hub.

The two incidents follow a run of recent problems at Sydney airport, though the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said neither of the latest two events was a near-collision and classified both as safety “incidents”, rather than “serious incidents”.

The ATSB said that on August 16 a Virgin 737 that had landed on Sydney Airport’s runway 16 was moving north on a taxiway while a Qantas 737 that had recently landed was exiting an intersecting part of that taxiway.

Air traffic controllers instructed the crew of the Virgin aircraft “to give way to the Qantas aircraft, but this instruction was not read back by the crew of the Virgin aircraft”. Air traffic control then did not identify the incorrect readback, the ATSB said.

“As the Qantas aircraft vacated the runway, the crew observed the Virgin aircraft approaching from the right, stopped their aircraft using normal braking, and clarified the taxiing sequence.”

Nine days later, on August 25, incomplete traffic information on a taxiing aircraft was given to a Jetstar Airbus A320 before pushback, when a plane rolls out of the gate, at Sydney Airport.

It meant that the plane was being directed onto the same aircraft that was taxiing behind the A320. The A320 ground crew identified the conflicting aircraft, a Bombardier Dash 8, and stopped the pushback before returning the aircraft to the gate.

Qantas said that in both cases, crew or ground staff identified the potential incidents and stopped the aircraft before it became a safety issue.

“In both incidents, the Qantas and Jetstar aircraft involved were following instructions provided by Air Traffic Control,” said a spokesperson for Qantas.

“Our pilots, crew and ground staff are highly trained to respond to all potential safety incidents and followed standard operating procedures on these occasions.”

“We’ll support the ATSB with their investigations,” said the spokesperson.

ATSB said there was no immediate risk of collision, with “flight and ground crews assessing the circumstances and reacting appropriately”.

A spokesperson for Airservices Australia noted that: “While the ATSB has stated that neither occurrence posed an immediate risk of collision, reporting and examining operational incidents is an important part of the aviation safety system and Airservices reported both occurrences in accordance with our standard safety reporting procedures.”

Since January 2021, Airservices has reported an average of 34.1 incidents per month at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, as well as 21.3 at Brisbane, and 12.2 at Melbourne, according to Airservices.