Media release – United Firefighters Union of Australia, Aviation Branch, 2 April 2024

LEAKED INTERNAL DOCUMENTS REVEAL AUSTRALIA’S AIR TRAVELLERS AT ‘EXTREME RISK’ – AVIATION FIREFIGHTERS ANNOUNCE STOP WORK

Leaked internal documents have revealed that air travellers at 13 Australian airports, including Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, are at ‘extreme risk’ due to a lack of aviation firefighting resources.

Air travellers at the remaining 14 airports, including Sydney, Canberra and Hobart, are at ‘high risk’.

The internal documents, called the ‘Task Resource Analysis’ (TRA), are an internationally recognised methodology used to ‘establish justification as to the minimum number of qualified/competent personnel required to deliver an effective Airport Rescue Firefighting Service to deal with an aircraft incident/accident.’ – (International Civil Aviation Organisation)

A methodology Airservices Australia has committed to using, the TRA involves an independent analysis of safety risk at each Australian airport and assesses whether the resources, including aviation firefighting trucks, firefighters, equipment, and procedures, are sufficient to mitigate that risk for air travellers.

Airservices’ TRA safety risk rating states that due to the lack of resources, air travellers at all Australian airports faced either ‘extreme’ or ‘high’ risk to their safety, should an incident occur.

In protest under protected industrial action, aviation firefighters have announced that they will be undertaking a 4-hour stop work across Australia’s airports at 6 am (AEST) Monday, 15 April.

Wes Garrett, United Firefighters Union—Aviation Branch Secretary, said that the leaked documents confirmed the Union’s claim over several years about the lack of resources available to protect Australia’s air travellers and the ongoing risk to their safety.

“These leaked documents confirm that Australia’s air travellers face a dire risk every time they set foot on an aircraft in Australia, should an incident occur.

“At 13 major airports across Australia, including Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, the leaked documents confirm that air travellers face ‘extreme’ risk.

“Air travellers faced a high risk at the 14 remaining airports across Australia, including Sydney, Canberra, and Hobart.

“The leaked internal documents found that the safety of air travellers was being threatened should an incident occur due to a range of resource and personnel shortages.

“These resource shortages include a lack of key personnel to operate breathing apparatus, shortages of firefighting agents to suppress multiple incidents, insufficient personnel and vehicles to protect both sides of a crashed aircraft, a lack of personnel for effective fire ground command and control, and a lack of procedural control at Australia’s airports.

“Clearly, this significant and ongoing risk to all Australian air travellers is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.

“That’s why aviation firefighters across Australia’s airports will be undertaking a four-hour stop work on 15 April.”

DIRE RISK TO AIR TRAVELLERS CONCEALED FROM THE PUBLIC

Mr Garrett said Airservices Australia conducted the TRA from 2021 to 2022 but only released the documents recently after concerted efforts from members of the Australian Senate’s Rural, Regional Affairs and Transport Committee to make them available.

“Disgracefully, Airservices have known about the dire risk to air travellers should an incident occur since 2022 and have refused to release the documents to the union or the public.

“Not only have they kept the truth from the Australian public, but they have repeatedly denied to the media, the Australian Parliament, and the Australian government that there are resource and aviation firefighter shortages at Australia’s airport.

“Yet, Airservices’ own documents clearly confirm the extreme and high risk all Australia’s air travellers face if an incident occurs each time they take a flight.

AVIATION FIREFIGHTERS CALL FOR URGENT ACTION

“To protect the safety of air travellers, we require a staffing clause in our enterprise bargaining agreement to ensure enough firefighters are provided at Australia’s airports to meet the TRA requirements.

“We require proper clauses on work hours and rostering to manage the unsustainable fatigue aviation firefighters are experiencing.

“Finally, we require upgrades to aviation firefighting facilities to meet work health and safety regulations.

“We call on Airservices to return to the bargaining table to address these critical concerns about the safety of Australia’s air travellers.”

AIRPORTS FOUND TO HAVE AN ‘EXTREME RISK’

  • Airports found to have ‘extreme’ fire and rescue response readiness risk under the TRAs include:
    • Brisbane
    • Melbourne
    • Perth
    • Adelaide
    • Avalon
    • Cairns
    • Darwin
    • Hamilton Island
    • Alice Springs
    • Mackay
    • Ayers Rock
    • Ballina
    • Gladstone

AIRPORTS FOUND TO HAVE A ‘HIGH RISK’

  • Airports found to have ‘high’ fire and emergency response readiness risk under the TRAs include:
    • Sydney
    • Canberra
    • Coolangatta
    • Hobart
    • Launceston
    • Sunshine Coast
    • Townsville
    • Broome
    • Coffs Harbour
    • Karratha
    • Newman
    • Port Headland
    • Rockhampton
    • Whitsunday Coast

None of the airports assessed was found to have a risk rating lower than ‘high’.