Safety in the vicinity of non-towered aerodromes - Australian ...

9 OTHER SAFETY INFORMATION SOURCES
There are other data sources available that can provide valuable safety information
about non-towered aerodrome operations.
Since January 2007, the Aviation Confidential Reporting (REPCON) scheme has
been available to the public as a voluntary system that allows any person who has an
aviation safety concern to report it to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB)
confidentially. Protection of the reporter’s identity is a primary element of the
scheme. Any matter may be reported if it endangers, or could endanger the safety of
an aircraft where it falls outside of the matters that are required to be reported to the
ATSB under the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003. Between 1988 and
February 2004, the ATSB also managed a voluntary incident reporting system named
Confidential Aviation Incident Reporting (CAIR).
In a search of the REPCON and CAIR databases, 91 reports were found over the
reporting period that related to procedures, frequencies, occurrences, and general
issues of airspace use around non-towered aerodromes.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Office of Airspace Regulation (OAR)
also convenes state-based Regional Airspace and Procedures Advisory Committees
(RAPACs) to allow airspace users to discuss any matters of concern relating to
airspace and related procedures in Australia, and specifically on a state level. The
Minutes of each meeting are published and available for public review on the CASA
website (www.casa.gov.au). As part of this study, the Minutes of all RAPAC
meetings nationwide in the preceding 12 months were reviewed to identify any
common safety themes.
9.1 Trends from the data
Many of the 91 reports retrieved from the REPCON and CAIR databases showed
common themes to the 709 airspace use-related occurrences in the ATSB database
between 2003 and 2008.
• 62 reports involved a conflict between two or more aircraft (fixed-wing aircraft,
helicopters, hot air balloons, gliders, military aircraft or ultralights).
• In 21 of these cases, one of the aircraft was required to take avoiding action to
prevent a collision. In 14 of these cases, one of the aircraft made a precautionary
diversion to maintain separation.
• In 27 conflicts, at least one of the aircraft involved was known or thought to be
conducting passenger transport (regular public transport (RPT) or charter)
operations.
Some common safety themes stood out from the REPCON and CAIR reports, as well
as from RAPACs. These are discussed in the following sections.
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