The pilots first heard of a Chinese live-fire naval exercise near Australia, when already in the air, received messages that forced some people to change the paths through a busy air corridor, satellite text messages and pilots through pilots seen by Reuters Show.
The incident highlights how the airlines are reacting to low notice on geo -political disruption and military threats like missiles and drone barrage between Israel and Iran last year.
It also shows how the Chinese army, in its first exercise in Tasman Sagar between Australia and New Zealand, is more vocal in the Indo-Pacific sector including Taiwan.
According to Australian officials, the plane first heard of a live-fire drill when a virgin Australia pilot broadcast a Chinese Navy on 121.5 MHz Emergency Radio Channel pilots, which was used to communicate between aircraft on last Friday (2258 GMT) last Friday (Thursday 2258 GMT).
Pilot reported a broadcast to an air traffic controller, which conveyed a message to the Australian army.
“At that level we did not know whether it was a potential cheating or real,” said at a parliamentary hearing this week, the Air Traffic Control Agency Deputy CEO Peter Curan said.
Air traffic control began sending dangerous alerts to nearby aircraft, including the flight of Singapore Airlines from Christchurch to Singapore and an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Melbourne, which was around 11:30 am around 11:30 am.
Half an hour later, Air New Zealand pilots told the land: “Hi, a lot of nonsense at 121.5 including the Chinese Navy. The same POS (Itian) and HT/Radius as you advised. Cheers.”
An airline dispatcher told the pilots of Air New Zealand 20 minutes later that “there was an undeclared live firing for you by the Chinese Army in Tasman.”
“We all know below. It is broadcast at 121.5 … Just FYI has been informed about a Chinese live firing exercise. Posn. 37s 15702e. Radius 40nm. Radius 40nm. SFC-45000.
Messages were addressed between aircraft and ground stations, addressing an aircraft communication and using the reporting system.
Legal but ‘irresponsible’
In 2014, the Malaysian Airlines flight in Eastern Ukraine, exposing the risk of live fire, was shot by military property, a Ukrainian flight except Tehran in 2020 and a suspected event involving Azerbaji Jet in Russia in December.
The Chinese warships were beyond 200 knots (370 km) of Australia, special economic zones on high seas, where the countries regularly practice live-firm, and China said that it warns that it complied with international law, which Australia has accepted.
However, Australia and New Zealand have said that drills were reduced by the best practice for information.
“In this sense, it was irresponsible,” the chief Admiral David Johnson of Australia’s defense force told a parliamentary committee.
The pilots are typically alerted for military drills, rocket launch and other airspace issues, which are through notice to airman, or notams, which are usually filed at least 24 hours ago.
“We/Ri Don/T have a notam for Chinese exercise,” an airline dispatcher told flights from two American airlines reaching Sydney and Brisbane at 3:37 am on Saturday.
Steve Cornell, a Kantas captain and vice -president of the Australian and International Pilot Association (AIPA), said the unexpected incident would have increased the charge on pilots and air traffic control.
Cornell told Reuters, “There was an issue with the issue, or effectively there was no notice.” “Suddenly it came to the attention of the pilots and had to maneuver around the region.”
Airservices said the routing was replaced for 49 flights last Friday.
Airservices first heard of a live-fire warning, air traffic sent a dangerous alert from Christchurch to Sydney to a Emirate flight, but said that they had “reports that the activity has ended”.
However, New Zealand’s Ministry of Defense said that on Saturday afternoon, a second live-fire warning came.
On Sunday, an airline dispatcher reported a virgin Australia flight to Queenstown, New Zealand to leave for Brisbane: “FYI has confirmed the Chinese Navy which is now well south in the southern ocean”.
The ships are now south of Australia and moving west, the New Zealand army said on Friday.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
