Sydney Tower Evacuated due to Fire
 

Breaking News

Sydney Tower evacuated due to fire.

Aircraft diverted

Aircraft now back on approach and landing. Appears a number diverted to YSCB.

We did have a C30J circling at one point. From my North Sydney vantage point, it came low over Darling Harbour, then a climbing right turn to 1200' and over SHB, and went up to 4000' or so and circled for a good 15 minutes.

C130 appears to be holding over the top but QFA517 making an approach appears to have landed and CX101 behind him now.

There’s an indefinite delay on departures at this time . The aerodrome is operating under CTAF and MBZ procedures apply on landing , ie the airfield surface is currently non controlled . The tower is expected to be active and operational at time 12:30 pm local .

Sydney director is doing a great job of gettting them down.

YSSY running as a CTAF, who would have thought.

Sydney Airport control tower evacuated, all flights grounded or diverted

Sydney Airport's control tower is being evacuated due to a fire — the ABC understands no flights are taking off or landing.

Emergency services were called around 11.40am to the air traffic control centre.
Fire and Rescue NSW said 20 people needed to be evacuated from the building.

Air Services Australia tweeted: "The Sydney Air Traffic Control Tower has been evacuated after smoke was detected."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-...erted/10952890

Well they are landing at least. Going to be a bit of a traffic jam on the ground soon if there are no departures.

1237 and still no tower. They are trying to get the old tower going. Several AC have tried tower freq and got no reply

Can anyone shed light on the orbiting C130J?

I saw that also. Not sure what it is doing.

ABC reporting that staff can return and Airservices Aus report that tower will be operational shortly

That explains why an AirCalin A330 is on the ground in Canberra then. It’s bright tail livery is certainly brightening up a grey old day down here, can see from many kilometres away through a sea of buildings!

Did anything else come down here?

Cheers

M

Tower operational again.

Not good enough!
 

Surely the old tower, or a mobile facility, should be available in an emergency for any CAT III airport. Is there no requirement under CAT III for a backup plan?

I think it’s presence was coincidental in the first instance , however , as the situation unfolded it acted as a radio relay on frequency 125.8 , advising to air traffic the unfolding scenario . It’s callsign was Trojan 55 .

Dave C

I’m not sure whether there is a requirement for a back up , but surely in this day and age , a “ commonsense approach “ should prevail . There should be contingency plans , but at the age I am having seen lots of water flowing under the bridge sadly nothing surprises me any more .

Dave C

A backup plan may not be enacted if the delay to services is thought to be low risk and manageable.

ie: If the incident is not a peak time and is under a pre-determined time (say 1hr) then a backup plan may not be activated.

The delay was being reported to holding aircraft as “ indefinite and no idea “ , that’s why some of the inbounds decided to divert . I wasn’t there , but thankfully it was all sorted out eventually .

Dave C

There are contingency plans and they were put in place, the C130 acting as a hi-top relay is likely an example of that. Lets not forget Melbourne had a similar issue in January. Its not possible to have an alternate tower even if there is one there, the stop bars, SSR and other aids all terminate only in the new tower. The cost of replication vs the probablity of them being needed just does not add up to a worthwhile expense.

I though tI heard an alarm start as I was leaving the beach carpark today - looks like I did!

Stop bars can be turned off in short time and a Notam put out to reflect the change with immediate effect.
I understand the old Tower is still equipped with radios (not sure how many frequencies they can handle at once..), but not much else. Capacity would obviously be reduced without all the fandangled equipment and electronic aids that the new tower has. Rwy 16L/34R would probably be taken out of action.

CAT III what exactly? CAT III ILS?

I don’t know what else you’d want to see done here? Departing aircraft were held in position on the ground, an en route controller was managing a reduced program of arrivals (and at that time of day the program probably didn’t need much reduction) down to finals, and the pilots then used their professional judgement from there. Flights with insufficient fuel or other reasons not to remain in the arrivals program took themselves out of the equation by diverting elsewhere. This all seems quite commonsense to me.

I’ve no doubt whatsoever that at a different time of day, or if the situation had gone on very much longer, or in different weather conditions, other arrangements would’ve been made. But I’ve also complete confidence in the arrangements that were made in the circumstances.

Both towers were remotely linked to radio equipment, they are not in situ. And the old tower would not be linked to the traffic management system, for handoffs and coordination, so they may as well stood in the car park with a handheld. The lack of handoff ability would explain why departures were stopped.

“Director” is not an en route controller but one that looks after control zone airspace, ie a terminal control unit member located at Kyeemah.

Fair enough... I couldn’t remember if it was Director or not, and should’ve checked. My point still stands.

CAT III????
 

Sydney is not Cat III, but if Cat III conditions existed it would take a brave/stupid pilot to arrive without a full alternate.

There’s your back up plan.

Todd.

There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots....

Then there are pilots who just stay home.

Interesting RAAF POV of the incident
 

The evacuation of Sydney Airport’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tower on 29 March saw a No. 37 Squadron (37SQN) C-130J Hercules crew directing civilian traffic at Australia’s busiest airport.

According to ABC News, smoke from a broken air-conditioning system saw 15 ATC staff evacuated from the Tower around 11.30am.

At that moment, the crew of a 37SQN C-130J Hercules – callsign Trojan 55 – was completing a flypast over Martin Place Cenotaph in Sydney CBD.

The flypast was part of a commemorative service for the 98th anniversary of the Air Force.

Flight Lieutenant (FLTLT) Tony Hick was the Captain of Trojan 55, and said the crew was flying back to RAAF Base Richmond when it learned Sydney Airport ATC Tower had been evacuated.

“As the aircraft approached Brooklyn Bridge (36 kilometres north of Sydney), we contacted Sydney ATC to advise them we were switching frequency to Richmond Tower,” FLTLT Hick said.

“The Controller asked us to remain on Frequency (135.1MHz) and attempt to relay a message for an All Nippon Airways flight, and the message was passed.”

“We asked the Controller if we could be of further assistance and his response was that if we could help then it would be appreciated, as there had been an incident at Sydney Tower.”

The crew flew back to Sydney, and for over an hour, Trojan 55 orbited at 5000 feet while the crew directed traffic at what is normally Australia’s busiest airport.

“At no time while we were on station were aircraft allowed to depart Sydney Airport,” FLTLT Hick said.

“Once on station we conducted a number of re-broadcast messages on ‘Sydney Terminal’ (135.1 MHz) and ‘Guard’ (121.5 MHz) for civilian traffic; both on the ground and airborne.”

“Sydney adopted a Mandatory Broadcast Zone with aircraft conducting Common Traffic Advisory Frequency arrivals.”

Flights into Sydney were delayed and diverted, and the crew of Trojan 55 directed traffic on the ground.

“Most aircraft that were inbound to Sydney were maintained on Melbourne Centre, and subsequently diverted,” FLTLT Hick said.

“Trojan 55 was responsible for assuring aircraft – such as Qantas, Singapore Airlines, China Eastern, Jetstar, Virgin Australia - on the ground requesting ‘Airways/Start Clearance’ were kept updated of the situation unfolding.”

“We also relayed taxi instructions to aircraft that had landed to ensure the runway and main taxiways were not blocked.”

FLTLT Hick said while the task was not particularly difficult, it led the crew to appreciate the variety and volume of traffic managed by ATC every day.

Once the Tower was back online shortly after 12.30pm, Trojan 55 returned to RAAF Base Richmond.

“Following recovery to Richmond I received a call from Sydney ATC – a RAAF Reservist by chance - thanking me for the crew’s efforts,” FLTLT Hick said.

“We also got positive feedback, via email, from the No. 453 Squadron Flight at RAAF Base Richmond ATC.”

FLTLT Hick, who is currently on exchange with 37SQN from the Royal Air Force, said it was the first time he’d done something this complex.

“Aircrew get asked by ATC to relay calls on frequency every day, usually because they have gone out of range, but never on this scale,” FLTLT Hick said.

“The Co-Pilot, who is fresh out of training, loved the responsibility placed on us during this task.”

“Along with the Loadmaster on board, it was great that we could provide this service for our civilian counterparts.”

https://www.airforce.gov.au/news-and...raffic-control

Are you talking about me? :p

At least I visit the airport regularly! :D

Yes. I meant you Nigel.

Hahahahaha.

Phillip, there are only 2 airports in Australia that have Cat III ILS’s, Melbourne and Perth.