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A Virgin Australia pilot was the source of information that Chinese warships were conducting live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea last Friday, Airservices Australia has revealed.
Speaking before Senate Estimates on Monday, CEO Rob Sharp said Airservices had found out about the naval exercises at 9:58am, 30 minutes after they had started, as reported in The Australian Financial Review. A hazard alert was issued within two minutes, with 49 flights ultimately diverted.
The warships were reportedly broadcasting the notification message in English on an international guard channel, which is monitored by pilots but not by air traffic control.
“It was in fact Virgin Australia, advising that a foreign warship was broadcasting that they were conducting live firing 300 nautical miles east of our coast. That was how we first found out about the issue,” said Sharp.
Airservices notified Defence’s Joint Operations Command Headquarters approximately 10 minutes after the Virgin pilot got in contact, with Transport Minister Catherine King’s office alerted at 11:20am and CASA at 11:28am.
According to Airservices deputy chief executive Peter Curran, air traffic controllers are usually given between 24 and 48 hours’ notice before live-fire drills, and flights in the air were diverted or rerouted to avoid the Chinese vessels, with an 18km exclusion zone established up to 45,000 feet.
“It is a relatively busy time of the day. There are a number of flight paths that go from Sydney across to various places in New Zealand and from Brisbane, they converge to the south-east there,” he said.
Defence Minister Richard Marles over the weekend accused China of not providing sufficient advance warning for the drills, which were conducted legally in international waters.
“The notice that was provided was very short. It was obviously very disconcerting for the airlines involved in trans-Tasman flights and flights that had already taken off within a situation of needing to divert their course around the Task Group, and that was obviously disconcerting,” he said.
“What would normally happen is that you would do a broadcast notification, which, to be fair, is what China did, to indicate that they were going to engage in a live firing event and that that would happen between a certain period of time.
“To be clear, even having done that notification, it’s the responsibility of any navy, any military, to make sure that when do undertake any live firing, you are doing so in a manner which is safe relative to any commercial traffic, be it sea or air, which is in the vicinity.”
China’s Defence Ministry in response called Minister Marles and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “completely inconsistent with the facts”, saying Australia was overreacting.
“China’s actions are in full compliance with international law and international practices and will not affect aviation flight safety,” said spokesperson Wu Qian.
“Australia, knowing this well, made unreasonable accusations against China and deliberately hyped it up. We are deeply surprised and strongly dissatisfied with this.”
Airservices has been contacted for comment.
