Aircraft near miss near Sydney
Saturday, 19 Dec, 2007
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A Sky News report says that Australian air traffic control is reviewing its hand over procedures after it was revealed that two commercial flights were close to colliding mid-air near Sydney during a shift change over.
The Virgin Blue 737 and the Cathay Pacific Airbus were battling severe storms
across Sydney on April 4, when they almost hit over Lucas Heights, in the city’s South West.
The investigation into the near catastrophe found it was caused by a flight controller who was distracted by his computer preferences at the beginning of his shift.
The 737 was in bound from Melbourne on its final descent, while the Airbus was on route to Hong Kong after taking off from Mascot airport.
The aircraft passed each other with a 3.5 kilometre gap and a 200m altitude and with a combined speed of 1000km/h, the two planes could have been as little as 10 seconds apart.
The legal passing limit for planes is almost twice as far apart.
Fortunately the conflict was spotted and warning bells went off, averting what could have been a tragic disaster.
Hand over procedures are being reviewed to stop it happening again.
A Report by The Mole from Sky News
John Alwyn-Jones
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