Prioritising Safety in the Allocation of Australian Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Services (ARFFS)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Prioritising safety in the allocation of Australian Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Services (ARFFS) Report prepared for the United Firefighters Union of Australia, Aviation Branch Dr. Victor Quirk1 February 2016 The Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE) is an official research centre at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Contact: 02-4921 7283 or [email protected] 2 Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. 5 List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 5 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 6 Section 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 13 Section 2 Current institutional and regulatory framework ...................................................... 18 2.1 International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) ........................................................ 18 2.2 Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) ...................................................................... 18 2.3 Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) ................................................................ 19 2.4 Airservices Australia (ASA) .......................................................................................... 19 Section 3 International Comparisons ....................................................................................... 22 3.1 Australia ......................................................................................................................... 22 3.2 International comparison ............................................................................................... 22 3.2.1 The ICAO standards ............................................................................................... 22 3.2.2 ARFF in other countries ......................................................................................... 25 Section 4 Relevant industry reviews ....................................................................................... 27 4.1 Airspace 2000 and Related Issues: Report by the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee (2001) ...................................................................... 27 4.2 2003 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services ................................................................................................................................ 27 4.3 National Commission of Audit ...................................................................................... 29 4.4 Aviation Safety Regulatory Review .............................................................................. 30 4.5 CASA Post Implementation Reviews ............................................................................ 31 4.6 Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting Services Policy Review: Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development (DIRD) ............................................................. 32 Section 5 The impact of the proposed changes to thresholds .................................................. 34 5.1 Projected growth rates ................................................................................................... 34 Section 6 Do the low accident rates since the mid-90s justify diminishing our preparedness for airport emergencies and accidents? .............................................................. 37 6.1 The assertion of a cost benefit of reduced ARFF .......................................................... 37 6.2 The past trend in accident rates ..................................................................................... 37 6.3 Factors impacting on future aviation accident rates ...................................................... 39 6.3.1 Human factors ......................................................................................................... 39 6.3.2 Birdstrike ................................................................................................................ 40 6.3.3 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) ....................................................................... 41 6.3.4 Terrorism and vandalism ........................................................................................ 41 6.3.5 Climate change ....................................................................................................... 42 6.3.6 Commercial Pressure .............................................................................................. 43 3 6.3.7 Aircraft life cycles .................................................................................................. 43 Section 7 The viability of airport risk assessments ................................................................. 45 7.1 DIRDs proposal ............................................................................................................. 45 7.2 Modelling the probability of a rare event ................................................................. 45 7.2.1 Causal factors in aviation accidents that are not airport-related ........................ 47 7.3 Anticipating the consequences of an aviation accident at a given airport ..................... 48 Section 8 Determining an appropriate policy stance ............................................................... 50 8.1 Prepare for a rare catastrophic event ............................................................................. 50 8.2 How we should allocate ARFF resources ...................................................................... 50 8.3 How should ARFF services be paid for? ....................................................................... 51 Section 9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 53 References ............................................................................................................................... 55 4 List of Tables Table 1 Air Services Australia ARFF landing fee schedule effective 1 July 2015 ................. 21 Table 2 ICAO Airport Category For Rescue And Fire Fighting ............................................. 23 Table 3 Airport category for all-cargo aeroplane .................................................................... 24 Table 4 Minimum number of vehicles .................................................................................... 24 Table 5 Forecast Vs Actual Average Annual Growth rates 2010-11 to 2014-15 .................... 35 Table 6 Financial years out from 2014-15 at which key RPT passenger movement thresholds are reached under different growth rate scenarios ................................................................... 36 Table 7 IATA Accident Data (2010-2014) .............................................................................. 38 List of Figures Figure 1: Public awareness of the availability of ARFF services. ........................................... 16 Figure 2: Public sense of what aircraft warrant ARFF service ................................................ 16 Figure 3: Public willingness to pay a universal fee for ARFF ................................................ 52 5 Executive Summary Section 1 Introduction This study relates to issues raised in the Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting Services Regulatory Policy Review Public Consultation Paper, released by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, in December 2015 (DIRD, 2015). The public’s perception of the safety of the aviation sector is of crucial industry concern. Australia has an enviable record free of commercial airliner fatalities, despite numerous potentially disastrous incidents over the years. Aviation is a crucially important transportation mode for connecting Australia to the world, and accounts for a significant share of the Australian economy. Of the 190 certified airports in Australia, 28 airports have an Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Service (ARFFS), either because they are handling more than 350,000 passenger movements per year, or because international flights land or take off from them. ARFF is a distinct branch of firefighting, requiring specialised training and equipment to deal with aircraft accidents or airport emergencies. Their primary purpose is to maximise the survival chances of passengers and crew in aircraft accidents occurring at or near airports. The DIRD review proposes to deregulate this area of aviation safety and constrain the future provision of ARFF services at Australian airports. This appears to have a financial motivation as it does not improve aviation safety standards. Any valid assessment of the risks arising from the review’s proposals need to place greater weight on the perspectives of those that will bear the heaviest burden of the increased risk, rather than of those that expect to gain from it. The passengers and crews involved in future aviation emergencies will bear the burden of the increased risk. 91.3% of randomly selected survey respondents over-estimated the number of airports that have ARFF in Australia, with 34% assuming they all do (Braithwaite, 2001). Notions of ‘balancing’ the protection of human life with commercial profitability should not imply that these considerations