In Australia, planes are navigating alone due to a severe shortage of air traffic controllers. At Darwin Airport, flights like those from Virgin Australia and Qantas Airways Ltd. operate without midnight control services.
Pilots in Australia are becoming increasingly concerned about a potential mid-air accident as a result of empty airport towers brought on by a lack of air traffic controllers, leaving passenger planes to navigate alone.
At Darwin, the northern gateway for carriers such as Virgin Australia and Qantas Airways Ltd., there are currently no midnight air traffic control services available. Schedules indicate that over a dozen flights must arrive or depart with virtually no guidance from the ground almost every day at midnight.
The Townsville airport, which serves as a popular gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, is located on Australia’s northeast coast. However, during weekends, its control tower is unmanned. Sundays alone need about fifty commercial carriers to coordinate their landings or takeoffs.
The post-Covid travel boom is causing additional risk in the air due to a labor shortage on the ground. Flight crews are taking on the job of separating their planes from other aircraft, a role that is typically performed by air traffic controllers. According to pilots, landing without tower guidance eliminates a crucial security measure during a crucial part of the flight.
Following an increase in passenger traffic, worried crew members are raising the alarm. Cirium data indicates that airlines have scheduled 866 flights into Darwin this month, the most this year, up from a Covid-era low of 171 in May 2020. Pilots report that the airport’s ongoing runway construction is making unassisted landings and takeoffs increasingly difficult.
“Satisfied that the arrangements between 10 pm and 6 am are safe for the anticipated traffic mix” at Darwin, according to a statement from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. The regulator stated that to “support a return to the previous service levels,” it is collaborating with the defense department, which is in charge of air traffic control at Darwin.
The government organization in charge of overseeing airspace, Airservices Australia, stated in a statement that although “safety is never compromised,” “rosters are tight in some areas.” Since 2020, the organization has hired and educated 100 additional air traffic controllers, and it announced that more than 70 more will start working there in the 2025 fiscal year.
Similar to other members of the aviation sector, air traffic controllers experienced a setback during the epidemic, with some individuals losing their jobs when international travel came to a complete stop. The rapid recovery in air travel has not kept up with employment levels in a sector that is critical to maintaining aviation safety.
The dwindling ranks have come under international scrutiny following a string of near misses on US runways, notably an April near miss between a JetBlue Airways Corp. flight and a Southwest Airlines Co. aircraft at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Five individuals were killed in a catastrophic incident that occurred on Tokyo’s tarmac in January.
At least 15 confidential reports that air traffic controllers in Sydney, Australia’s principal aviation gateway, sent to the transport safety investigator early last year raised worries about their safety. Some cautioned that unless the personnel shortage was corrected, an accident was practically a given.
Pilots were told in flight-planning notices as late as last week that “post-Covid Airservices staffing shortages” could affect control tower operating hours at airports around Australia. The list featured the airports of Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania, and Canberra, the capital city of the country.
Tony Lucas, a senior Qantas pilot and the president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, stated that “without air traffic control, the chance of errors by any one aircraft or pilot increases, and the ability to identify and correct those errors is dramatically reduced.” “We want to see normal operations resume as soon as possible.”
Small aerodromes or isolated airstrips frequently run independently in Australia, a large country where air travel is all but inevitable. Pilots who converge on Darwin, where air traffic control is not available from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. most nights, report a crowded late-night airspace that includes tiny medical evacuation planes, military aircraft, and commercial flights.
Without air traffic control, the chance of errors by any one aircraft or pilot increases
Tony Lucas, Australian and International Pilots Association
A 20-year Qantas employee who piloted a Boeing 737 expressed relief at making a safe landing in Darwin in early April just after midnight in the absence of air traffic control. Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, he talked in anonymity. The pilot stated that an accident would not be surprising given the circumstances.
The Australian Airline Pilots’ Association was so worried about the situation that same month that it released a safety alert. The body issued a warning that because not all aircraft are fitted with crash-avoidance systems, there is an increased chance of a mid-air collision in regions of uncontrolled airspace. Worldwide professional pilot bodies received the alert.
Qantas refrained from commenting but cited recent remarks made to a legislative transport committee in Australia.
Qantas informed the committee in a letter dated May 14 that, “for safety reasons,” its aircraft avoid uncontrolled airspace unless there is no other choice. It “was once an extremely rare event – almost unheard of in Australian airspace and even in a global context,” the airline stated, holding pilots accountable for so-called self-separation in the air.
It’s commonplace now.
The airline informed the committee that about 1,600 Qantas group flights in 2023 were delayed due to the unavailability of regular air traffic services. For the same reason, about 400 planes were delayed in the first four months of this year. The airline demanded that Airservices Australia be subject to “more regulatory oversight.”
Virgin Australia did not respond when contacted, although it did report to the same parliamentary transport committee last month that, between January 1, 2022, and April 24, 2024, air traffic control was removed 810 times. These mishaps happened both in midair and as the plane was getting closer to Australian airports.
Pilots are advised on the Airservices Australia website that there won’t be any overnight service at Darwin Airport until at least November of this year. In July 2022, the restrictions were implemented.
The difficulty of maintaining mid-air separation are indicated by the dense cluster of airline arrivals and departures at Darwin on each side of midnight. According to the airport’s flight schedule, up to 16 planes operated by Qantas, Jetstar, and Virgin arrive or depart within a window of roughly two hours, far after Darwin’s control tower has closed.
Speaking on the record, the Qantas pilot claimed that the previous time he approached Darwin Airport, an area controller gave him a rundown of all the neighboring flights, which helped him to get a sense of the air condition. He then got in touch with other planes to make sure they were staying apart both horizontally and vertically and wouldn’t be landing simultaneously.
After connecting to the plane’s Wi-Fi and visiting Flightradar24, a website that is primarily watched by aviation aficionados on the ground, he touched down without any problems. Numerous aircraft lack Wi-Fi.
It’s not like government agencies are unaware of the long-standing worries that air traffic controllers and pilots have.
An anonymous confidential submission, purportedly from an air traffic controller, was published by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in March 2023. It brought to light the ignorance of controllers and aircraft crews over what actions to take in uncontrolled airspace. The individual described the circumstances as “an accident waiting to happen.”
Three months later, the safety bureau reported that during the previous four months, air traffic controllers had submitted “a large number” of private complaints. Of them, fifteen had to do with operations in Sydney. Only one had occurred throughout the preceding five years.
The agency released excerpts from those letters, which reveal broad apprehensions about Sydney’s staffing levels and processes. It was “just a matter of time before the current practices at Airservices result in a major aviation incident,” a controller issued a warning. Another suggested that the labor situation will not be resolved for years. Airservices disputed at the time that there were shortages in Sydney.
Another Boeing 737 pilot, who is aware of Darwin’s current limitations, claims that the airport is too crowded to function without full-time air traffic control. The Australian airline pilot, who wished to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the media, claimed that Airservices Australia has had plenty of time to address gaps in its staff.
The pilot, who has flown for around 20 years, claimed that the situation at Darwin is as severe as he knows.
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