Two Qantas jets ‘came within 15m of colliding’ at Perth airport

Two Qantas jets came within 15m of a collision at Perth Airport after one ignored a stop signal and taxied into the path of another preparing for take-off.

An ATSB investigation found two Qantas 737s came within 15m of colliding on Perth Airport’s runway. Picture: ATSB

Two Qantas jets came within 15m of a collision at Perth Airport after one ignored a stop signal and taxied into the path of another preparing for take-off.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has delivered its final report on the close call on April 28, 2018, involving two Boeing 737s.

The investigation found the captain of one of the aircraft had developed an “incorrect mental model” of the taxiways off runway 03, and did not think his plane would have to cross another runway.

Despite seeing an illuminated stop signal, the captain assumed it was poorly positioned and meant for aircraft taxiing in the other direction. As a result of his mindset, the other 737 on runway 06 was forced to abort its take-off and veer to the left to avoid a collision.

The ATSB found the wing tip of the 737 on the runway passed about 15m from the other jet’s nose at low speed.

Qantas fleet safety captain Debbie Slade said they accepted the findings of the ATSB.

“As the pilot of the aircraft that was about to take off could see the other aircraft and was aware of its position on the taxiway, there was no danger that the aircraft would have come into contact,” Captain Slade said.

Since the incident, Airservices Australia had made the taxiway unavailable for use and Perth Airport had since removed it from its aerodrome map.

The ATSB investigation found Perth Airport had a significantly higher rate of runway incursion than other major airport in Australia with 11.6 ­incidents in every 100,000 aircraft movements compared with two for Sydney and 0.3 for Melbourne.

From July 2015 to April 28, 2018, 44 such incidents were recorded in Perth, of which the Qantas 737 incident was the most serious.

ATSB director of transport safety Mike Walker said runway incursions were one of the most “significant risks to safe aviation operations” and were a key ­global safety priority.

“Airport operators and local runway safety teams are strongly encouraged to identify and mitigate the risk of hotspots, especially those that involve short distances between runways, complicated junctions, and the potential for higher taxi speeds,” Dr Walker said.

Since the incident, Qantas had published a safety information notice to all pilots ­containing information about the background of runway ­incursions.

The airline also updated its Flight Administration Manual to include a requirement for pilots to brief relevant airport hotspots in their contingency planning, to mitigate against the possibility of collision or runway incursion.

“Pilots can help prevent incursions by identifying runway hotspots during departure and approach briefings, and discussing the actions they will take to reduce the risk of a runway incursion,” Dr Walker said.