Smith enters fray over radar

MILLIONAIRE Dick Smith has joined the election fray

MILLIONAIRE Dick Smith has joined the election fray.

He has taken out full-page advertisements in Tasmania calling on political parties to fix radar deficiencies he argues are risking airline passengers' lives.

Mr Smith seized on a recently released Australian Transport Safety Bureau probe into a 2008 close call between a Jetstar Airbus A320 and Virgin Blue Boeing 737 at Launceston, to call for changes to airspace procedures. He wants Canberra to require air-traffic controllers in Melbourne to separate planes landing after the airport's tower closes.

The 737 was conducting a missed approach and the A320 was reacting to this when the planes came within 5km of each other at the same height instead of the required minimum vertical separation of 1000 feet.

Under current procedures, planes landing after hours at Launceston leave controlled airspace at 12,500 feet and crews must talk to each other via radio to arrange separation of the aircraft as they land.

Mr Smith argues uncontrolled airspace at major regional airports is an unacceptable risk to public safety and "an archaic do-it-yourself 1920s-style" system.

He said yesterday Airservices Australia already had radar coverage of Tasmania that would allow controllers to separate the aircraft.

"It is unacceptable to have airline aircraft flying virtually blindfolded below the level of nearby mountains in pitch darkness and in cloud whilst within radar coverage but not under any form of air-traffic control," Mr Smith said.

The former Civil Aviation Safety Authority chairman warned Tasmania -- where Labor holds all five federal seat, two of them on thin margins -- could go either way in the forthcoming election and voters there wanted the radar situation fixed.

"It is incredibly serious and I will be doing radio interviews all over Tasmania tomorrow and through the week," Mr Smith said. "I want to get one or the other, either the Liberals or Labor, to say they're going to fix it."