[Peetwo]

Day 5 of the campaign - Angus calls in absent??

This was the ASA response to the Weekend Oz frontal assault:

Response to The Australian

13 Jul 2015
[/url] [url=http:://auntypru.com/forum/javascript:window.print()]
Dear Mr Mathieson,

Two recent articles in The Australian, ‘Radical overhaul to deliver safer skies’ (11 July 2015) and ‘Pilots back reforms for air space overhaul’ (13 July 2015) continue to make false and misleading claims about air traffic services in Australia and about Airservices Australia.

It is disingenuous to assert that Airservices is ‘defying moves by CASA’ in relation to the provision of air traffic information services at Ballina Airport and misrepresents the information that we have provided to your journalist.

Neither the airport operator, nor the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), are seeking to introduce a Unicom radio service at Ballina.

As we advised The Australian, Airservices is working with the operator of Ballina Airport to develop the most appropriate and cost effective options for providing radio information services.

Ballina Airport has approached Airservices to discuss access to our Fire Control Centre at the airport for the airport to provide a Certified Air/Ground Radio Service (CA/GRS) which would provide a better level of information services than a Unicom. This type of arrangement between the aerodrome operator and Airservices is not new and is already being successfully used at Ayers Rock where a CA/GRS is currently in place.

Ballina is one of the very few locations in Australia where, in line with CASA regulations and recommendations, a new rescue and fire fighting service has been introduced and there is currently no air traffic control service. CASA is currently reviewing the airspace classification at Ballina to determine whether an air traffic service is required and Airservices will support the outcome of that review when it is finalised.

Your article ‘Radical overhaul to deliver safer skies’ (11 July 2015) makes assertions about the level of air traffic services provided in Australia that are irresponsible and incorrect. Contrary to your reporting, all passenger flights in Australia are supported by continuous air traffic services throughout their entire flight, in all types of airspace and at all locations.

In addition, a comprehensive suite of weather information services is available to all pilots both before and during any flight in Australia through services provided by the Bureau of Meteorology in conjunction with Airservices. This includes automated weather services available during flight as well as services provided by air traffic controllers over the radio.

I note that this is the fifth time that Airservices has had to write to The Australian in four weeks about eight inaccurate and misleading articles that The Australian has acknowledged form part of a “sustained campaign.” We again ask you to refrain from making these inaccurate and misleading claims, and publish corrections at the earliest opportunity.

This selective reporting also fails to provide balance and objectivity, which appears to contravene News Limited’s own Code of Conduct and the Journalists Code of Ethics. A fair and reasonable reader who considers the questions from your journalist and the answers we provided (see the weekend’s answers attached), coupled with the stories published, is likely to be disappointed as this is not what people would expect of The Australian.

Safety is, and will always be, Airservices number one priority. Australia’s aviation safety record is among the best in the world and we welcome a debate about the future of airspace management in Australia that is responsible, based on facts and that makes a positive contribution to the ongoing improvement of aviation safety and efficiency.
Yours sincerely
 
Mairi Barton
Executive General Manager
Corporate and Industry Affairs
13 July 2015

Hmm...more of a siege mentality than a counterattack..
Ok so what is the Oz take on that? From that man again...

Air controllers, fire crews: Angus Houston gave wrong impression  

• by: EAN HIGGINS
  
• From: The Australian
  
• July 15, 2015 12:00AM
  

Reporter
Sydney




Angus Houston: ‘Our firefighters are not trained in that way’. Source: News Corp Australia
 
Airservices Australia chairman Angus Houston gave the ­impression fire crews employed by his body at regional airports would not be lawfully ­allowed to provide potentially life-saving weather and air traffic ­information to ­pilots, when an ­avenue is available for them to do so.  

In another discrepancy, Airservices’ media unit said management at Ballina airport in northern NSW had not discussed with ­Airservices whether the fire and rescue crew stationed there could perform the radio advice function, when airport manager Neil Weatherson did canvass such an option.

Airservices has also claimed it and the Bureau of Meteorology provide a “comprehensive” weather service to pilots because airports without air traffic controllers have automated weather stations, a statement aviation experts ­describe as ludicrous.

Airservices is also under pressure over a $6 million air navigation system it deployed in Tasmania, which press releases at the time said would provide radar-style surveillance aircraft separation almost down to the ground, when in practice it does not.

There are three airports which do not have control towers manned by air traffic controllers, but where Airservices has a fire and rescue base: Ballina, Newman in Western Australia, and Gladstone in Queensland.

Airservices, the government-owned agency which runs the ­nation’s air traffic control system, has been in lockstep with the air traffic controllers union in opposing proposals for its fire and rescue staff to man the Unicom radio to provide air traffic and weather information to pilots, as their counterparts do at many regional US airports.

In an interview with The Australian last month, Sir Angus said: “The regulator (the Civil Aviation Safety Authority) has decided that, if anybody is to provide air traffic information to pilots in a ­regional context, they must be suitably qualified people. Our firefighters are not trained in that way.”

While CASA regulations only allow individuals who have held an air traffic controllers’ licence within the past 10 years to provide weather and air traffic information over the radio to pilots, CASA can, on application, provide exemptions to allow others to do so.

Asked specifically if Airservices could apply for its firefighters at Ballina to give out air traffic and weather information, CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said it could.

“In the case of a Unicom this regulatory support would include an appropriate legal instrument needed to enable basic information on air traffic to be provided by the Unicom operator to pilots,” he said.

An Airservices spokeswoman said “the airport operator (is not) seeking to introduce a Unicom radio service at Ballina”.

Ballina Byron Gateway Airport manager Neil Weatherson, at a meeting last month which included fire station manager Wayne Morrison, told The Australian he was exploring with Airservices whether fire crew could man the Unicom. Only when it became clear Airservices was not going to budge did he surrender on that front and move to hire retired air traffic controllers for the purpose.

Airservices said “a comprehensive suite of weather information services is available to all pilots … this includes automated weather services” which convert weather readings to voice for pilots.

But a US expert in air traffic control who has spent time in ­Australia, Jeff Griffith, said the ­automated service could only relay information from the precise point the device was located, not talk about weather dangers visible many kilometres away.

In 2005, 15 people died when an aircraft crashed into a mountain while approaching a small airport at Lockhart River in Cape York. Aviation experts say the tragedy might have been prevented if ground staff had been in contact with the pilot as would have ­occurred in the US.

Running score so far: Higgo - 6   Mary (with two eyes) - 0

That's the trouble with spin & bulldust, like that from ASA, if it can't be backed by facts then you are on a hiding to nothing---

MTF...P2

Ps Perhaps it would be worthwhile if team Boyd & the Board had a look at this from the UK  CAA - CAP1032: Aerodrome Flight Information Service Officer Licensing (TKS Paul.. )