A332 / A333, en-route, North West Australia, 2012

A332 / A333, en-route, North West Australia, 2012

Summary

On 31 March 2012, after the implementation of contingency ATC procedures for a period of 5 hours due to controller shortage, two Garuda A330 aircraft which had been transiting an associated Temporary Restricted Area (TRA) prior to re-entering controlled airspace were separately involved in losses of separation assurance, one when unexpectedly entering adjacent airspace from the TRA, the other when the TRA ceased and controlled airspace was restored. The Investigation did not find that any actual loss of separation had occurred but identified four Safety Issues in relation to the inadequate handling of the TRA activation by ANSP Airservices Australia.

Description

On 31 March 2012 an Airbus A330-300 (PK-GPA) being operated by Garuda on a scheduled passenger flight from Bali (Denpasar) to Melbourne and an Airbus A330-200 (PK-GPO) being operated by Garuda on a scheduled passenger flight from Bali (Denpasar) to Sydney were both independently involved in losses of separation assurance because of issues arising from the short notice temporary implementation of TIBA procedures in an area of upper airspace following due to a shortage of controllers.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).

It was noted that the basis for the determination that a Serious Incident had occurred was that two aircraft had operated in controlled airspace without ATC awareness because of issues related to the temporary implementation of TIBA procedures in a TRA when the provision of normally mainly procedural ATC service in an area of upper airspace controlled from Brisbane ACC could not be maintained. An overview of the airspace involved is shown below:

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