Empty control tower at LST

AN incident in which two passenger aircraft were on a converging path in fog is being investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
The incident at Launceston Airport about 10pm last Thursday came shortly after control tower staff clocked off.

Liberal senator Guy Barnett said it was astounding that the Launceston control tower could clock off as two major passenger jets were about to land in partial fog.

"Not only should the incident itself be investigated but also why the control tower was empty," Senator Barnett said.

It is the latest in a series of glitches at the airport which has had an unmanned tower four times in the past six months -- the latest on Sunday afternoon.

In March the ATSB investigated an incident in which a Jetstar flight left the airport without runway lights being on.

In 2003 a Virgin Blue Boeing 737 came within 60m of a five-seater Tobago flying from Hobart to Sydney.

ATSB director of aviation safety investigation Julian Walsh confirmed the investigation of last week's occurrence involving Jetstar and Virgin Blue aircraft.

Mr Walsh said the planes did not pass each other in opposite directions and the pilots had been communicating with each other.

"Jetstar made a missed approach and as it climbed away the aircraft were on a converging path but preliminary investigations indicate they were not closer than five miles," he said.

Mr Walsh said the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System had not been triggered.

He said both aircraft were in contact with the Melbourne control tower because the Launceston tower had closed.

Radar data would show the flight paths of the aircraft, speed and altitude information.

"That will give us a replay of what the two aircraft were doing and the audio data from the aeroplanes will tell us what they knew of each other," he said.

Virgin Blue spokeswoman Amanda Bolger said: "Virgin Blue has made its own internal inquiries and the ATSB will follow its processes but from our investigations we're satisfied that at no stage were the aircraft less than five miles apart."

Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said the airline had provided an incident report to the ATSB.

Mr Westaway said a "go-around" had been undertaken by pilots.

http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story...8-3462,00.html

Good God, Whats going on down there

[Paul McFarlane]

Originally Posted by Lukas Mahoney

Good God, Whats going on down there

Well.. if they didn't come closer than 5 miles from each other and knew of each others position.. then I'd say nothing much out of the ordinary.

Lets lay off the Media Bashing. Enough already - mod

[Nick W.]

I thought two heads would make it safer in the crows nest?