Retired airline pilot says Sydney Airport safety incident 'diminished'

Sydney Airport could face "catastrophic" consequences if safety issues are not addressed, following three incidents in as many weeks, a former pilot and aviation safety investigator says.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) revealed last Thursday it was investigating a third mishap, this time involving a Qantas flight crossing the path of a departing Virgin Australia aircraft.

It said at 10am on August 9, Virgin flight VA555 to Perth had its clearance to take-off rescinded by air traffic control soon after it had been given.

It is understood Qantas flight QF728 began to cross the runway more than 1,200 metres away from the Virgin plane, after also receiving clearance.

Just three hours earlier, there was a near miss between a Jetstar plane and a Qatar Airways aircraft at the same airport.

A Jetstar cabin crew worker was injured when the A320 plane had to brake suddenly to avoid colliding with a Boeing 777 under tow.

Two weeks prior, on July 27, a Qantas Link flight and a Qantas plane were involved in a near-miss on the tarmac.

Retired commercial airline pilot and former aviation safety inspector, Geoff Klouth, said if the safety issues were not rectified "quickly", a worse incident could occur.

"We've been very fortunate that there haven't been collisions, but it doesn't mean it won't happen in the future," he said.

"It's only luck preventing the aircraft coming together because the system is not working at present.

"I'll say that the chances from a risk management level ... are high that something will happen and the consequences of that could be catastrophic."

ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said on Friday there were "multiple lines of defence" in an emergency situation like the trio of recent incidents.

"I will say in all three instances, there was a layer of defence that kicked in and prevented an escalation," he said.

"We find in a lot of our investigations it is very rarely a single point of failure. For it to progress through to an actual accident, multiple things need to go wrong."

'Matter of significant interest'

Mr Klouth's aviation career spanned 35 years, making his way from flying instructor to piloting Kendell, Ansett and Qantas commercial airlines in Australia and overseas.

While mostly based at Melbourne Airport, he frequently flew in and out of Sydney. 

He also spent 18 months as a senior aviation safety investigator at the ATSB, followed by a long stint with Jetstar as a first officer, fleet safety investigator, training captain, and flight operations auditor from 2006 until he retired in 2023.

Mr Klouth said one of the reasons he retired was because the systems that used to support pilots were "diminishing in quality and standards".

He said this included a reduction in air traffic controllers employed by Airservices Australia, as well as procedures managed by airports and the regulatory Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

"You were expected to maintain a safe flight, but you weren't given the processes around it,"

Mr Klouth said.

CASA did not answer questions sent by the ABC about safety systems, citing the current investigation.

However the regulatory authority said the third incident was a "matter of significant interest" to them and it was working with Airservices Australia.

"It is important that we allow time for the ATSB to investigate this and the other incidents fully and that we do not prejudice its investigation by speculating on their cause," it said in a statement.

The ABC also contacted Sydney Airport for comment about safety issues and risks of a possible collision, to which it responded safety was and always will be "the first priority".

"Australia has one of the safest aviation systems in the world, supported by rigorous oversight from safety regulators, airlines, airports, and air navigation service providers," a spokesperson said.

Mr Klouth said Airservices Australia "tried to diminish" the latest runway incident by suggesting there was "still plenty of room".

"The point is that the system should be there, the procedures should be in place, so that never happens,"

he said.

Airservices Australia did not respond to Mr Klouth's allegation about safety measures and staffing levels, instead pointing to previous statements.

The company previously said safety was its top priority.

On Friday, CEO Rob Sharp said initial reviews of the recent incidents had not uncovered systemic issues compromising passenger safety.

He said the government body responsible for managing air traffic did not believe the incident met the threshold for reporting because an "experienced controller" rescinded clearance to the Virgin pilot immediately, the aircraft was stationary, and it was 1,300 metres from the Qantas plane.

"We do take our reporting requirements very seriously," he said.

"But we will work closely with the ATSB because there are some data points that need to be resolved and clarified ... we look forward to any learnings that come from that particular incident."

'Structural challenge'

Mr Klouth said the Sydney Airport "crisis" was a "long time coming".

"I could see that [safety issues] already starting to happen due to staffing levels ... but what we're seeing is the end result of that," he said.

"If one controller is busy doing multiple tasks or they've been called in to come into work on multiple days off, fatigue can have an impact on your performance."

Last week, Minister for Transport Catherine King released a statement after a meeting with the Airservices Australia boss to discuss the airport's challenges.

"It has been a big focus of ours to encourage more people to enter the profession, and 95 people are expected to be endorsed as air traffic controllers by the end of the year,"

Ms King said.

"Six controllers are currently training in Sydney Tower, with another 15 expected to commence before the end of 2027."

Ms King said the company commitment to improving roster practices for Sydney's air traffic controllers would begin early September, and that a new Sydney Tower simulator had been installed to increase training capacity.

Mr Sharp said there had been a 44 per cent decrease in delays at the airport over the past two years, and the organisation was focused on the "structural challenge" of the shortage of air traffic controllers.