Packer jet in near miss with airliner

[David N]

http://www.news.com.au

A CORPORATE jet owned by James Packer's company narrowly avoided a mid-air collision with a passenger aircraft over NSW, an investigation report says.
The Gulfstream G-IV came within 244m of a Virgin 737-800 on October 8 over Armidale, in northern NSW, a report by air safety inspectors released today states.

The planes should have been 305m apart at the time, the report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says.

Moments after the close encounter, an automatic alarm was sounded, with an air traffic controller alerting the Virgin pilots that the Gulfstream was too close.

"Subsequently the controller acted correctly to recover from the ensuing breakdown of separation," the report says.

It says pilot error was not to blame for the close call.

"There was no evidence that the pilots of the affected aircraft or their aircraft systems and equipment were a factor in this occurrence," the report stated.

"The occurrence involved a series of factors related to human performance limitations that impacted on the (air traffic) controllers' performance."

Mr Packer is the largest shareholder in Crown, which operates the Crown casino in Melbourne and the Burswood casino in Perth.

Crown Melbourne did not respond to requests for comment.

ATSB Final Report

http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/...-2011-127.aspx

[Mick F]

Crown Melbourne did not respond to requests for comment.

Errrr, not sure why they'd even have to comment.....

[Kent Broadhead]

Because the jet was transporting "high rollers" for the casino? As they primarilydo, according to other reports.