Safety in the vicinity of non-towered aerodromes. in the vicinity of non-towered Safety ATSB TRANSPORT SAFETY REPORT Aviation Research and Analysis Report – AR-2008-044(2) Final Safety in the vicinity of non-towered aerodromes ATSB TRANSPORT SAFETY REPORT Aviation Research and Analysis Report AR-2008-044(2) Final Safety in the vicinity of non-towered aerodromes - i - Published by: Australian Transport Safety Bureau Postal address: PO Box 967, Civic Square ACT 2608 Office location: 62 Northbourne Ave, Canberra City, Australian Capital Territory, 2601 Telephone: 1800 020 616, from overseas +61 2 6257 4150 Accident and incident notification: 1800 011 034 (24 hours) Facsimile: 02 6247 3117, from overseas +61 2 6247 3117 Email: [email protected] Internet: www.atsb.gov.au © Commonwealth of Australia 2010. This work is copyright. In the interests of enhancing the value of the information contained in this publication you may copy, download, display, print, reproduce and distribute this material in unaltered form (retaining this notice). However, copyright in the material obtained from other agencies, private individuals or organisations, belongs to those agencies, individuals or organisations. Where you want to use their material you will need to contact them directly. Subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, you must not make any other use of the material in this publication unless you have the permission of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Please direct requests for further information or authorisation to: Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Copyright Law Branch Attorney-General’s Department, Robert Garran Offices, National Circuit, Barton, ACT 2600 www.ag.gov.au/cca ISBN and formal report title: see ‘Document retrieval information’ on page vii - ii - CONTENTS THE AUSTRALIAN TRANSPORT SAFETY BUREAU ............................... viii TERMINOLOGY USED IN THIS REPORT ..................................................... ix EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................... xi ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. xvii 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ........................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 What is a non-towered aerodrome? ........................................... 1 1.1.2 Why is the ATSB looking into non-towered aerodrome safety? ........................................................................................ 3 1.1.3 Typical aircraft using non-towered aerodromes ........................ 3 1.1.4 Changes to the Australian airspace environment ....................... 4 1.1.5 Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF/CTAF(R)) and the replacement of Mandatory Broadcast Zones (MBZs) ...................................................................................... 5 1.1.6 Recent changes to non-towered aerodrome procedures ............. 6 1.1.7 What is the relevance of this research following the CAR 166 changes on 3 June 2010? .................................................... 8 1.2 Objectives ............................................................................................. 9 1.3 Scope .................................................................................................. 10 2 METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................... 13 2.1 Data sources ........................................................................................ 13 2.2 Data limitations................................................................................... 17 3 GENERAL OCCURRENCE TRENDS ...................................................... 19 3.1 Accidents, incidents, and serious incidents near non-towered aerodromes ......................................................................................... 20 3.2 What types of occurrences were most common?................................ 21 3.3 Who reported the occurrence? ............................................................ 23 3.4 Where were the most occurrences? .................................................... 24 4 CONFLICTS AT NON-TOWERED AERODROMES ............................. 27 4.1 Aircraft/aircraft conflicts .................................................................... 27 4.1.1 On the ground .......................................................................... 27 4.1.2 In the air ................................................................................... 31 4.2 Aircraft/ground vehicle conflicts ........................................................ 31 4.3 Occurrences with no conflicts ............................................................ 31 - iii - 4.4 Making your presence and intentions known ..................................... 32 5 WHY CONFLICTS OCCURRED – CONTRIBUTING ERRORS ......... 35 5.1 Information errors ............................................................................... 36 5.2 Action errors ....................................................................................... 39 5.3 Decision errors .................................................................................... 40 5.4 Violations (intentional non-compliance) ............................................ 40 6 MONITORING AND AWARENESS ......................................................... 41 6.1 Occurrences involving non-broadcasts ............................................... 43 6.2 Why weren’t pilots monitoring the CTAF or making broadcasts? ..... 50 6.3 Other alerted ‘see-and-avoid’ tools .................................................... 52 6.3.1 Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS/ACAS) .............. 52 6.3.2 Air-ground radio services ........................................................ 52 7 OUTCOMES OF CONFLICTS .................................................................. 57 7.1 Accidents and serious incidents .......................................................... 57 7.1.1 Accidents with fatal injuries and aircraft damage .................... 57 7.1.2 Serious incidents ...................................................................... 58 7.2 Consequential events .......................................................................... 59 7.3 Avoiding action taken and collision risk ............................................ 60 7.3.1 Avoiding action ....................................................................... 60 7.3.2 Collision risk ............................................................................ 60 8 MOVEMENTS AT NON-TOWERED AERODROMES ......................... 63 8.1 Major non-towered aerodromes in Australia ...................................... 63 8.2 Traffic mix at comparison group aerodromes .................................... 65 8.3 Occurrences and operation types at comparison group aerodromes ... 67 8.4 Investigated occurrences at comparison group aerodromes ............... 69 8.4.1 Port Macquarie Aerodrome ..................................................... 69 8.4.2 Orange Aerodrome .................................................................. 71 8.4.3 Hervey Bay Aerodrome ........................................................... 71 8.4.4 Other recent investigations involving non-towered aerodrome operations ............................................................... 72 9 OTHER SAFETY INFORMATION SOURCES ....................................... 73 9.1 Trends from the data ........................................................................... 73 9.1.1 Parachuting operations ............................................................. 74 9.1.2 Frequency congestion and interference ................................... 74 9.1.3 Model aircraft and kite flying .................................................. 75 9.1.4 Avoiding landing charges ........................................................ 76 - iv - 10 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................... 77 10.1 Summary of findings .......................................................................... 77 10.1.1 Findings from occurrence reporting data ................................. 77 10.1.2 Findings from movements data ................................................ 79 10.2 Previous ATSB studies into non-towered aerodrome safety .............. 80 10.3 Maintaining safe operations in the vicinity of non-towered aerodromes ......................................................................................... 81 10.4 What you need to do if you fly at non-towered aerodromes .............. 82 10.5 Further research required .................................................................... 83 11 REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 85 12 APPENDICES ............................................................................................... 89 12.1 Appendix A – Airspace classifications in Australia ........................... 89 12.2 Appendix B – Traffic mix for 20 selected non-towered aerodromes, 2003 to 2008 .................................................................. 91 12.3 Appendix C – Air-ground radio information services available at non-towered aerodromes .................................................................. 104 12.4 Appendix D – Traffic mix analysis vs. Occurrence types by aerodrome ........................................................................................