Wake turbulence warning for airlines at Sydney Airport

Friday, February 15, 2019

An analysis by air safety investigators found a disproportionate number of reports of wake turbulence. Airlines have been warned of wake turbulence at Sydney Airport. The reports at Sydney Airport is more than that compared to other Australian airports.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB ) analysis found wake turbulence from big planes landing on one of Sydney’s parallel runways. It would affect aircraft landing on the other. It can induce a roll in the following plane and this poses an increased safety risk during flight phases such as landing and take-off.

In wake of the findings, Airservices Australia has agreed to introduce changes to the way it handles aircraft landing at the airport.

Sydney is currently the only Australian airport running parallel runways. The runways are 1000m apart and the aircraft using one runway are not separated from aircraft using the other by wake turbulence separation standards. ATSB found evidence that wake turbulence generated by aircraft arriving on one parallel runway could affect aircraft arriving on the other, especially in certain wind conditions.

Aircraft arriving on Runway 34 Left were found to be the most likely cause for more than half of the Runway 34 Right arrival wake turbulence occurrences. The rate of reported wake turbulence occurrences by arriving aircraft following an Airbus A380 was more than double that of any other aircraft type arriving at Sydney.

As per the ATSB review of wake turbulence reports between 2012 and 2016 found that 78 of 179 events were at Sydney. Seven of eight minor injuries were reported at this airport.

Investigators found the wake turbulence events were associated with A380 factor,  arrival densities of one or more aircraft per minute, especially for flights that arrived on runway 34R, and a wind direction from the west or north-west.

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