Two planes involved in near-miss while taxiing at Sydney Airport

On Sunday evening, Federal Transport Minister Catherine King confirmed that a Jetstar plane and a Qatar Airways aircraft were involved in a near-miss incident on the tarmac at Sydney Airport. As standard protocol, the ground controller and tug operator responsible for the incident have been stood down for mandatory drug and alcohol testing.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is conducting an investigation into the event, which occurred around 7am when the Jetstar A320 was taxiing to the runway and had to brake suddenly to avoid colliding with the Qatar Airways Boeing 777. No passengers were injured in the incident. The Jetstar spokesperson mentioned that air traffic control was operating under restrictions from 6am to 8am, which reduced the number of planes flying in and out of the airport.

Airservices Australia stated that they had implemented departure spacing measures to manage the situation and were collaborating with airlines to minimize delays and their impact on passenger travel. The ATSB is also reviewing the incident and will help with the safety investigation, which includes collecting data from the aircraft, air traffic controllers, and witnesses via CCTV footage.

This incident follows a similar near miss last month involving a QantasLink flight from Canberra and a Qantas Boeing 737 service from Queenstown, where Air Traffic Control detected a coordination breakdown and cleared the 737 to cross another runway while the DHC-8 was landing.