A third Sydney airport runway incident under investigation
A safety investigation is underway into a third near-collision incident in as many weeks at Sydney airport.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is investigating a third runway incident at Sydney Airport, following two similar near-collision incidents in recent weeks. The latest incident occurred on Sunday, when a Virgin Australia Boeing 737 was cleared by air traffic control to take off from runway 34L, but collided with a Qantas Boeing 737 that had been cleared to cross the runway on taxiway Lima.
The Virgin aircraft stopped roughly a kilometre from the intersection after observing the Qantas jet. Earlier in the day, a Jetstar flight had to brake sharply to avoid colliding with a Qatar Airways plane being towed on the tarmac. Both incidents come just weeks after two Qantas flights narrowly avoided contact at the end of July.
ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell stated that the delay in reporting to the ATSB needs to be addressed, and his team is investigating the reasons behind the delay and how to improve communication.
Written by urgent.news from SBS News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
