Jetstar pilots.....jet jockey's

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The Australian

JETSTAR has been forced into an embarrassing reversal
after accusing its own pilots of being among the worst in the country at obeying air traffic instructions and procedures.
An internal email sent late last month by two senior pilot managers described the low-cost Qantas offshoot as "one of the worst offenders in the country when complying with ATC (air traffic control) instructions, adhering to correct procedures and radio calls".

The apparent admission came as Jetstar was attempting to convince regulators to allow it to fly international routes.

The email, obtained by The Australian and sent to all Jetstar pilots, said the carrier had received "multiple" electronic safety incident reports reflecting its failure to comply with altitude instructions and restrictions, as well as radio procedures when arriving at and departing from airports.

It said there were also comments about "non-standard techniques" being used when departing airports without radar coverage and where a designated radio frequency was used to alert planes of each other's presence.

"We will endeavour, over the next 12 months, to provide as much training and feedback during line and simulator checks as we can," said the email from Jetstar line operations manager Jeremy Schmidt and training manager Steve Byrne.

"However, it is incumbent upon each of us to maintain a high degree of professionalism as we continue to grow."

But Jetstar said yesterday another email to be distributed to pilots today would retract the original email's claims.

Jetstar group manager for safety John Gissing said the authors had taken absolute numbers and made some assumptions in their desire to urge pilots to improve. This had led to the original email being exaggerated, much to the embarrassment of the authors.

"It wasn't true at all," Mr Gissing said. "In fact, the opposite is true: when you rate the failure-to-comply rates we get against other operators we're better than or equal to them.

"It's one area where we perform particularly well and that can be verified through the Australian Transport Safety Bureau data. And when you compare us to international operators, not just domestic, we're substantially better."

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said the authority was unaware of the email and would be asking to see the data on which it was based.

But he said CASA encouraged airlines to run proactive safety systems that identified risks as well as improvements and this appeared to be what Jetstar was doing.

"We've actually flown quite a few sectors with them recently and we've been in simulator training with them and that hasn't led to actions by CASA to date," he said.

"So we've got them under quite a lot of surveillance, which is typical of a company that's growing rapidly, and certainly we'll continue that."

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