The Manual of Air Traffic Services did not explicitly state that sequencing instructions were required to be read back by a pilot, providing no assurance that this safety-critical aspect had been correctly understood.
To be advised.
Response by Airservices Australia
Airservices Australia advised that the Air Traffic Management Standards and Senior Air Traffic Services Specialists conducted a review, and will investigate a change to Manual of Air Traffic Services (MATS) 9.2.2.13.2 and the respective Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) reference (GEN 3.4 – 37) to include the instruction ‘follow’ in the list of items requiring readback.
ATSB comment
The ATSB welcomes the changes that Airservices Australia proposes to make to MATS and the AIP. As no timeframe for this change was provided, the ATSB will monitor this safety issue until the changes are made.
