The “Almost
Fatalities” We Don't Hear About
ALERTS
The
preliminary report from the investigation into the August 2008 tragic
plane crash near the school in Cheltenham
makes
reference to radio communications which are issued prior to something
which looks like it might become a plane crash! It is called
an ALERT transmission. We know that ALERT transmissions are
not
infrequent but the public isn't made aware of them. So we live
under averted aircraft crashes
and potential fatalities
that we are never told about.
Breaking The Rules
It’s not
just ALERT transmissions that the
community isn’t told about. Planes and helicopters can
regularly breach civil aviation regulations without penalty or change
in their behaviour. For example everyone has seen helicopters
and planes
flying low over homes or along the coastline. Many of these
aircraft are breaking the law and flying too low and so flying
dangerously. Below is a chart which shows a helicopter joy
riding along the coast. In places it is flying over the beach
and coastal homes well below the minimum legally
required height of 700 feet. This sort of thing occurs many
times a week
but nothing is done about it.
It is made more disturbing by the fact that these same
aircraft could simply chart a course a few hundred metres off-shore and
in so doing simultaneously reduce the community
impact and comply with regulations. Another version of this
community abuse occurs when helicopters (or planes) arrive or depart
from the Moorabbin Airport heading toward the coast and make little
effort to fly at a sensible altitude above homes but instead justify
their low flying based on the fact that they are on approach or
departure from an offshore low altitude. This sort of
aviation practice does not demonstrate social responsibility or concern.
The
helicopter in the following picture was formally sanctioned by
CASA after a member of the Moorabbin Airport Resident's Association
submitted this image and a flight chart obtained from Air Services
Australia. The helicopter hovered
at a dangerously low altitude over Aspendale homes. The pilot
was patently oblivious to the amenity and safety of the people in the
homes below.
Incidents
There are
potentially dangerous events called
INCIDENTS which occur on a regular basis at Moorabbin
Airport. Incidents are anything other than an accident
associated with the operation of an aircraft that could affect the
safety of the operations. Incidents at Moorabbin Airport make
up almost half of the total of all incidents for the whole of
Australia (at such GAAP airports). Yet as a
community we have no regular and specific information about the type of
incidents associated with the Moorabbin airport unless we dig through
CASA documents. In a Parliamentary Debate in
1999 on something called the Damage by Aircraft Bill, Mr Albanese who
is now the Minister who approves all of the above aircraft activity at
Moorabbin (and who lives in Sydney) made a comment to the effect that
residents who are killed by an aircraft crashing into their homes will
be dead and so won’t have to worry about suing. He inferred
that it was more important to do something about these incidents which
caused
more subtle forms of damage to
people and their homes. http://aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr030699.pdf
Bird
Hazards
Moorabbin
airport is a coastal airport so birds
are a hazard and this is clearly stated in the airport aviation
guidelines. Birds cause planes to crash. The
following picture shows what a bird can do to the wing of plane.
Inexperienced Pilots
Moorabbin
airport has the highest concentration of trainee
pilots of anywhere in Australia. The majority of
the overhead aircraft in the City of Kingston are being
flown by inexperienced overseas trainee pilots. What a
worrying thought. We’ve
all heard about the higher rate of accidents for "L" and “P”
plate car drivers
and their much higher insurance premiums, there is clearly a reason
for this. Obviously the risk
increases for similar reasons when a trainee or newly
graduated pilot is
in control of an aircraft? And believe it or not there is a
requirement for only two hours of flight instrument training for
trainee pilots. Those eager inexperienced pilots can
"get behind the
wheel" unsupervised after just a couple of days of flying with an
instructor. By the way, some of the pilots flying
unsupervised over our homes right now are only 16 years old.
Stunt and Formation
Flying
Believe
it or not there is also stunt
and formation flying over the suburbs of Kingston.
Everyone accepts that there are much higher risks associated with this
sort of activity. The Picture below is of three planes
practicing
their formation flying over our homes. Why should we put up
with
these pilots playing God with our lives as well as their own
and
why couldn't they do this sort of dangerous flying out over Port
Phillip
Bay or out of an unpopulated regional airport? (All
three
planes
in the picture below had turned off their tracking
transponders!)
Flying Over Public
Gatherings
Civil Aviation Regulation 156 says that it is an offence to fly
over public gatherings, but there is a loop hole in the regulation
which says it is ok to do so when landing and taking off. So
on
the 14th and 15th of March 2009 aircraft decided to fly
straight through the aviation loop hole and over the top of
60,000
people at a festival on Peter Scullin Reserve in Mordialloc. Clearly
there were alternative airport approach and departure routes
which
would have avoided the reserve on those two days. The flying was
not only dangerous and inconsiderate but further demonstrated
the
way in which the safety and amenity of residents and children in the
City of Kingston is regularly compromised.
Terrorism
Moorabbin
airport is one of the busiest in the
Southern Hemisphere and there is virtually no screening of aircraft or
cargo. The airport facilities are poorly patrolled and planes
and helicopters are stored in the open ready for the taking.
In its recent green paper on aviation the Federal Government stated "... the threat to aviation
remains, and international terrorist organisations continue to focus
attacks on aviation as a preferred target".
So because of Moorabbin airport and the way it is run the City of
Kingston is statistically the most dangerous municipality in Australia
from a terrorism perspective. Read More.
The Repair and
Maintenance Regulations Are Softer
There
is a higher chance of mechanical failure on the sorts of aircraft flown
out of Moorabbin because the maintenance regulations are much less
stringent for these smaller aircraft what's more you don't have to have
a proper engineers licence to service many of the smaller planes.
The Aircraft That
ALMOST Crash Into Our Homes & Children
The
airport says
it’s safe and that crashes and deaths are rare.
As
a community we have to ask
ourselves what sort of “safe” do we feel comfortable with.
Are we happy that planes "rarely" fall from the sky?
Is
there a more sensible
way of measuring
safe than counting the number of planes that almost fall
on our children? There
are 90 schools and educational institutions in the City of Kingston.
Most people
are shocked to learn that there is roughly the same chance of death by
culpable driving in the city of Kingston as there is of death by aircraft
crash.
Of course the difference is people make a
decision to venture onto the roads. Also roads are defined
and
contained transport routes that do not pass over people's homes. It is
reasonable to
expect homes, places of work and schools to be safe sanctuaries in
every Australian municipality. It seems by the grace of God the
residents of the City of Kingston wake each morning grateful that
a plane or helicopter has not crashed into their loved ones. And
so as the police count crime statistics and work to make homes, schools
and roads safer, the Moorabbin Airport Corporation (MAC) tells us it
has a "responsibility" to put more and more aircraft into the
skies.
Apart from the existing shopping
precinct which MAC has installed on
the aerodrome perimeter and a financial windfall from the recent
closing of the public golf course to build more shops, MAC tells
us that aviation commerce is pitifully
nonviable. MAC
peddles furiously to
keep up aviation momentum because it acquired the lease on the huge
airport site from the Federal Government on
embarrassingly favourable terms. To keep the lease it needs to be
seen to be running an
aerodrome. If it means putting in 100 seat jets, more helicopters and
scores more trainee pilots into the skies over our homes then given
half a chance it will. MAC openly and repeatedly states that it is not
concerned about what happens when the aircraft leave the ground. The
planes are almost irrelevant, MAC is essentially a property
developer. In an endeavour to maintain respectability during tough
economic times MAC then quotes airport employment figures which are
bloated by the employees who staff the shops and
supermarkets and offices on
the perimeter of the aerodrome.
Sadly the residents of the City
of Kingston continue to subsidise this
bizarre urban experiment with their most basic entitlements to safety
and amenity.
Information On The
Activities Of Specific AirCraft & How To Complain
If you believe a
plane or helicopter should be reported you need to gather some basic
information.
Write
down the time and date and where it is flying and the rough direction
in which it is flying. If you have binoculars or a
camera you might be able to get the registration details but
any
identifying details or colour will help.
Click here
to visit the AirServices Australia Webtrak site where you can sometimes
get part of the information you are looking for. This is a
new
online service which shows the planes flying over Melbourne. The only
problem is that planes and helicopters can turn off their transponders
and not appear on the charts. Data obtained by MARA from
AirServices Australia suggests that as many as 75% of aircraft in the
Moorabbin control zone have their transponders turned off, which tends
to make Webtrak look like a rather derisive public relations
exercise.
If
the AirServices Australia Webtrak site doesn't help then contact
AirServicesAustralia directly. You can either complete their
form
by clicking here or send an email to:community.relations@airservicesaustralia.com or even phone
them:
1800 802 584 (This
is also the phone number for the "noiseline" but
there are no noise monitors near the Moorabbin airport so this part of
the exercise is all a bit of a farce too.)
Once
you have decided that a helicopter or plane is breaking the
rules
or operating improperly you should contact CASA.
CASA can be
contacted by clicking here or by phoning 131757
from anywhere in Australia.
By all means if you need help
send an email to MARA (Moorabbin Airport Residents Association Inc.).
The email address is annacemanuel@optusnet.com.au
or you can
just fill in the form on the Keep
Me Informed page of this website.
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