On 20 October 2005, a Boeing Company 777-2B5ER aircraft (777), registered HL-7530, was taking off from runway 34 left (34L) at Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport on a scheduled passenger flight to Seoul, South Korea. After the 777 commenced the take-off run, an aircraft tug, radio callsign Qantas Tug Red Golf, with a Boeing Company 747-400 freighter aircraft (747) in tow crossed the departure end of the same runway. There was a runway incursion.
The investigation found that the tug driver involved in the occurrence had 17 years experience in driving a tug at Sydney Airport. In that time he had not been involved in any other recorded incident. Despite his extensive experience and the ongoing training and checking regime that was in place by the tug operator and at Sydney Airport leading up to the occurrence, the driver of tug red golf thought that a clearance issued to the pilot of a taxiing aircraft was for the tug driver.
The driver believed he heard a clearance to cross runway 34 left from the surface movement controller east (SMC E). The driver acknowledged that clearance in accordance with published procedures but the SMC E remained unaware of the situation due to a radio overtransmission. In the absence of any response from the SMC E the driver continued to cross the runway. From that point on, there was limited time available to prevent the runway incursion.
In the absence of stop bar lights and advanced pilot/driver/controller alerting systems, enhanced training emphasising the importance of crew resource management support during towing operations and the importance of removing any doubt from information contained in clearances and instructions are important elements to reduce the risk of similar runway incursions.
Airservices Australia and the tug operator reviewed procedures and made a number of changes to prevent similar occurrences.