Safety first in Tasmania

Flying into and out of Tasmania is safe and continues to be safe, Australia’s air traffic control provider has reaffirmed today.

Allegations in today’s The Australian that ‘failures’ in the system are putting aircraft at risk and that aircraft ‘go missing’ are simply wrong.

Surveillance equipment used across the state is state-of-the-art, with passenger aircraft flying into the state under the control of an air traffic controller 24 hours a day.

The Australian air traffic control system operates with multiple layers of redundancy to manage any unforeseen issues and to ensure safety and service levels are continually maintained.

Air traffic control surveillance in Tasmania is provided through this system by 14 ground stations located across the state. This network achieves the required level of surveillance and resilient back-up coverage in the event of disruptions to individual ground stations.