Near-miss filmed above Melbourne Airport involving three jets blamed on cost-cutting
Two Qantas jets involved in a near-miss caught on film above Melbourne have sparked calls for an urgent safety review of the airport's intersecting runway system.
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Footage taken inside one of the Qantas jets in July last year shows one jet pass directly beneath another as the two planes were forced to abort their landings after an Emirate's plane was delayed taking off.
The two planes were said to pass less than one nautical mile (1,852 metres) apart – one third of the legal minimum distance.
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One of the planes also breached the minimum altitude distance above the terminal.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon points the blame on the airport's intersecting runway system, which lowers costs by allowing for more planes to move through the airport.
"They were coming at each other at right angles and it was a close call," the senator told 7 News.
"This was a close call because we allow in this country intersecting runways to operate simultaneously."
The crossbencher said a number of pilots and air-traffic controllers contacted him about the matter and ongoing issues with the intersecting runways, but it still took four months for it to be addressed.
The Land and Hold Short Operations (LAHSO) system is banned in most countries but Melbourne Airport is one of three Australian airports to use cross-runways.
AirServices Australia, the Commonwealth body in charge of our skies, said about the near-miss that at "no stage was there a threat to passenger safety".
It added the LAHSO system is used at many major international airports, but Senator Xenophon said Melbourne should have parallel runways like Sydney.
LAHSO operations still run at Melbourne Airport in daylight hours but the near-miss – the second in five years – is being investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
News break – February 7