The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has commenced a transport safety investigation into a taxiing conflict involving two passenger aircraft at Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning.
A Qantas Airbus A321 was taxiing south towards runway 34 Left, to operate a flight to the Melbourne, while a Qantas Boeing 737 that had landed on runway 34 Right on a flight from Gold Coast was taxiing to towards the domestic terminal.
As reported to the ATSB, the Boeing was taxiing west along taxiway Lima with a clearance to turn right at taxiway Bravo, while the Airbus was taxiing south along taxiway Charlie with a clearance to turn right onto taxiway Lima.
As the Airbus approached taxiway Lima, the flight crew observed the Boeing approaching from the left and brought their aircraft to a stop while the Boeing passed ahead of them.
The ATSB notes there was no immediate risk of collision, with the Qantas A321 aircraft braking normally before coming to a stop.
As such the ATSB has classified this as a safety “incident”, rather than a “serious incident”, but has elected to conduct an investigation to understand the potential conflicting instructions to the flight crews and whether there are any contributing factors common across the other Sydney Airport incidents currently under investigation.
The evidence collection phase of the investigation will involve interviewing involved air traffic controllers and flight crew, retrieving and reviewing available recorded data, and the collection of other relevant information.
The ATSB anticipates publishing a preliminary report, outlining factual information, in about 6-8 weeks.
However, if at any time the investigation identifies a critical safety issue at any time the ATSB will immediately inform relevant stakeholders.