Last Friday afternoon for about two hours between Melbourne and Sydney, during the busiest of peak hours for the busiest air route in the country, thousands of passengers were trapped in jets or in terminals because AirServices Australia couldn’t fully man the air traffic control system.
Crikey subscriber ‘Peter’ on board QF 448 to Sydney took notes.
As we finished boarding and the door was closed, the captain came on fairly quickly to advise us there was a problem with air traffic control and he was trying to get to the bottom of it.
There was a distinct and vocal response from passengers on the near-full flight. The captain reiterated it was a problem from AirServices Australia, beyond the control of anybody at Qantas.
We were updated that there was industrial action by controllers and it was unclear how long we would be delayed and that in the circumstances, we were free to turn on and use any ‘electronic devices’.
Quite clearly aggrieved, the captain advised he was getting off the aircraft to make a number of calls and speak with the Qantas chief pilot. Upon his return, he addressed us again to advise that the chief pilot had instructed him not to fly in unmanned airspace. He explained the safety aspects, saying it involved taking risks Qantas wasn’t prepared to take and supported his boss saying, “I applauded this decision.”
The mood in the cabin was very supporting of Qantas notwithstanding the problems the delays were causing to us. He again pointed out it was not the fault of anyone at Qantas and there was nothing we could do, except to contact our politicians and call for them to fix this mess. I thought maybe there was something I could do right now, and I’d give it my best shot. I put a call in to Greg Russell, CEO of Airservices Australia.
I got through to the switch, and proceeded through a number of gatekeepers until I got to his PA, Andreas. He asked my name and what it was in relation to. I gave my name and explained I was passenger 46B on flight QF448, and that I was being held to ransom by the actions of his company.
Andreas sounded a bit miffed, as well as confused, advising me there was no industrial action today. I assured him I was encountering a significant delay on the tarmac, allegedly due to the lack of air traffic controllers. He mumbled something then informed me that Greg Russell “doesn’t take these kind of calls and was sure there was no industrial action today” and asked me to hold.
I was finally put through to their corporate public affairs guy who humoured me and handled the call with courtesy as he explained his understanding of the situation. He conceded it could be either a genuine mass sick leave occurrence (perhaps some rabid and virulent strain of diarrhoea,) or it could be “covert industrial action, as we are in a collective bargaining period — it has happened before.” He even had a laugh when I suggested if it was found that this was covert industrial action, we return to public stoning — it was Friday night after all.
Let’s get this in perspective: all airspace on the Easter seaboard of Australia shut down from 4:30-6:30pm on a Friday night. Thousands of business travellers were held to ransom over something that has absolutely nothing to do with them.
The crew did their best to understand and accommodate the national and international flight connections of those on board, but the impact is real, for everybody. My colleague missed his son’s first water polo grand final (they lost), another nearby passenger was going to miss a wedding in Singapore. The hostie had planned to watch a DVD with her hubby.
But Greg Russell didn’t want to hear about the personal impact of the failings of the business he runs.
Well Mr Russell, maybe if your time is so important not to take calls from the peasants being held hostage for two hours… because the business you are responsible for cannot deliver the service it is paid to deliver, perhaps you should at least humour them by drafting a form letter apologising to their families — especially the kids — for the little bits of life that are actually important to them that you caused their mum or dad to miss.
Or you could have a crack at fixing the business you are responsible for running.
Peter’s notes are significant for other reasons. This is more evidence of the lies that are told by AirServices Australia and CASA about how not having controlled separation in our skies is safe. Qantas is telling them it is unsafe. It is AirServices major customer. It has had such a gut-full of nonsense over this it is mobilising its passengers to complain.
It is incredible in a modern nation that flights between the two largest cities can’t be given reliable air traffic control. Russell claimed early last August the staffing problems would be over by the end of that month. He’s the CEO. How could he get it so wrong? Does AirServices really expect people to believe it has been crippled by an industrial agreement negotiating process for a whole year of staffing screw ups?
It wasn’t lack of dollars in pay packets that kept controllers away from Melbourne on Friday night, or away from Sydney, causing more widespread chaos on Saturday; it was lack of staff. AirServices hasn’t managed its human resources. It slashed deeply into training and made errors in staff allocation. If it was just about the pay, no one would be left to man anything at AirServices. They would all be working for far better pay and conditions in Eire, Germany and the Middle East.
When is this curtain of bulldust going to drop away and compel the minister to confront this dangerous and unsatisfactory state of affairs in Australian air traffic control?
Perhaps as soon as tomorrow, when he releases the green paper on future aviation policy. Or will that also disappoint?
Now ain’t that the truth! I was due to leave Sydney on VB (DJ866) to Melbourne at 5.15pm. last Friday. Arriving at Sydney airport at 5.05 I thought I had missed my flight. Not so.
We boarded and the 1st came on the air and told us about thunderstorms which “had closed down all traffic”. We eventually got airborne at 6.15. I heard no thunder, saw no lightning and whilst the climb out of Sydney was bumpy, I saw ans felt nothing unusual. I expect that VB aircrew would hardly instill confidence if they had told the truth. But then their senior cabin man didn’t know what the time was (twice) So thanks again Ben for your excellent coverage.
Amazing isn’t it! Planes and lots of lives could all be in grave danger because of deficiencies in the air traffic control system, and good old Gav wants to focus on pc semantics. Good on ya mate. Nice to see your priorities are nice and straight.
On a more closely related note, I bounced Ben S’s story off an air traffic controller acquaintance, and got back the following:
Begins:
Interesting story/article. No surprise really. Saturday afternoon and
evening was even worse with regards to airspace closures and bad weather
around Sydney and Canberra, but there isn’t the number of flights affected
on Saturdays.
Unfortunately, until the travelling public have their plans thrown into
chaos, nobody really cares. Things are only going to get more and more
interesting as Christmas approaches.
Ends
Greg
I was on QF 779 SYD-CBR delayed 20 minutes last Friday because of lack of controllers in Canberra. This news from the captain provoked only a slight guffaw from the packed-in passengers. Perhaps some appreciated the irony – Qantas able to blame someone else for a delay. Though it is true that there seems to be a routine Friday delay out of Sydney to do with “traffic in the Sydney area”. Have they all stopped trying, knowing that passengers’ expectations are falling anyway? Only a matter of time before an excuse used in Malaysia shows up here: “cows on runway”.
Great article Ben. Completely ignores the people at the centre of the ‘ransome’ claim – the Air Traffic Controllers. In the middle of publicly documented collective negociations, its clear ATC are using this kind of public sentiment to put the pressure the Government/management of Airservices Australia to give them what they want. Like a pay rise of some 67% with increments of 4% each year and unlimited sick leave. And the risk of them heading offshore is pretty slim when you consider the paypackets in Germany or the Middle East don’t come with all the bells and whistles these public servants enjoy in Australia. Can I suggest that instead of using your articles to work for the very people who are holding both passengers and Governments and ultimatley tax payers to ransome that you actually tell the whole story and maybe encourage people with grievances to send those to the Union responsible for condoning this kind of covert sick leave. This is Australia’s new waterfront dispute – where a rouge element of the unions are asking the Australian taxpayers to give them an enormous payrise and using those very taxpayers and travellers as their bargaining chips. That is disgraceful. Much worse than not taking a phone call or apologising on behalf of workforce that takes this kind of action.