Paul Phelan/CAIRNS
Australian flag carrier Qantas suspended regional services to several eastern New South Wales provincial centres on 30 October, because of safety concerns over a trial of proposed new flight information and communication rules in uncontrolled "Class G" airspace.
Up to 41 incidents reported in the first week of the trials are believed to have included eight near misses. Airlines asked Civil Aviation Safety Authority chief Mick Toller on 29 October to halt the trial because it had proceeded before their safety concerns had been addressed.
In a letter to Toller, airlines had earlier said that the new arrangements compromised the safety and integrity of the two-crew operating concept; that agreed procedures to provide separation or traffic information, where radar advisory service was unavailable, had not been set up; that new search and rescue watch arrangements were unsatisfactory; and that radio congestion and frequency confusion had created pilot workloads which were unacceptable .
Source: Flight International
