00:01Well, Kath, it was just before 10am last Sunday when this Virgin flight was on the runway here
00:09at Sydney Airport, and it was given the all-clear from air traffic control to begin its take-off.
00:17Now, that crew begun applying thrust, and it wasn't until they themselves spotted a
00:23Qantas flight making its way into its path that it put the brakes on and realised that
00:29it would not be able to take off.
00:32They then let air traffic control know when that take-off was delayed for that time.
00:39But the concerning part of this is that they were given the all-clear by air traffic control.
00:45They were over 1,000 metres away, so nothing as close as the incidents we have seen.
00:52But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's Chief Commissioner, Angus Mitchell, said he's
00:57now investigating whether there was staff under training with a supervisor in air traffic
01:03control when this incident occurred.
01:06Let's hear a little more from him.
01:07It is concerning that it occurred at all, and that's why we've picked it up.
01:11We're adding this to the other two investigations that we've started over the last two weeks,
01:15and we really want to understand why these mistakes happened in the first place.
01:19In all cases, appropriate action was taken by the pilots on board in all three instances,
01:26and indeed by a traffic control.
01:29But it doesn't underscore the importance that they shouldn't have been put in this situation
01:33in the first place.
01:34A lot of questions in this investigation, I'm sure, Julia.
01:38Now, it's important to note here that this latest incident is one of three that has happened
01:43at Sydney Airport in recent times.
01:46That's right, Kath.
01:48Just hours before that incident last Sunday, a Jetstar flight headed to the Gold Coast, which
01:54was full of passengers, came mere metres away from crashing with a Qatar Airways flight on
02:02the runway.
02:03Two weeks earlier, there was another new collision between a Qantas link flight and a Qantas flight.
02:11And now, Air Services Australia was actually summoned to Canberra earlier this week to speak
02:17with the Federal Transport Minister, Catherine King.
02:20And at the time, she said she was happy with the effort that Air Services Australia was putting
02:26in to deal with chronic staffing shortages that have been ongoing at the airport here.
02:33And when Air Services Australia came out and spoke, they said that those chronic staffing
02:38shortages shouldn't be impacting safety, but that those investigations into those three
02:46incidents are ongoing and all of the airlines involved are cooperating with the ATSB on those
02:54investigations.
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