Violation of controlled airspace, Tecnam P2002 and a Fairchild aircraft, near Sydney Airport, New South Wales, on 19 August 2006

On 19 August 2006, the pilot of a Tecnam Costruzioni Aeronautiche P2002 aircraft, registered VH-JFV, was tracking from Bankstown Airport to a flying training area, west of the airport. The flight was being conducted under the visual flight rules (VFR) and the pilot intended to remain in non-controlled airspace (OCTA) for the duration of the flight. The upper limit of OCTA on the intended track was 2,500 ft until 37 km west of Sydney Airport. At 1137, the aircraft was observed on air traffic control radar to be above 3,000 ft and climbing, inside controlled airspace (CTA). That placed the Tecnam in potential conflict with a Fairchild Industries Inc SA226-T Merlin aircraft, registered VH-SSM, which had departed from Bankstown for Wollongong. The Merlin was being operated on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight.

At 1138, the Sydney Departures South controller received a short-term conflict alert on the air situation display (ASD). At the time of the alert the aircraft were separated by 900 ft vertically and 3,150 m (1.7 NM) laterally. The controller issued heading instructions to the pilot of the Merlin to avoid the Tecnam. A radar controller established radio communications with the pilot of the Tecnam and instructed the pilot to leave CTA. The pilot complied with the instruction by descending the aircraft and it left CTA at a position about 35 km west of Sydney Airport.

The pilot of the Tecnam had misidentified the aircraft's position in relation to the CTA boundary and consequently inadvertently entered CTA without a clearance. The pilot subsequently undertook additional training to ensure that he could visually identify the CTA boundaries in and around the Bankstown area