{"id":853956,"date":"2026-08-13T16:20:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T16:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853956\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T16:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T16:20:22","slug":"air-safety-authorities-investigating-third-sydney-airport-runway-take-off-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853956\/","title":{"rendered":"Air safety authorities investigating third Sydney Airport runway take-off incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Safety authorities are investigating a third runway incident at Sydney Airport involving a Qantas flight crossing the path of a departing Virgin Australia aircraft.<\/p>\n

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said on Wednesday that the incident on Sunday involved Virgin Australia Flight VA555 destined for Perth and Qantas Flight QF728 flying to Ayers Rock Airport.<\/p>\n

“At around 10am local time, air traffic control (ATC) cleared the Virgin Australia 737 for a full-length take-off on runway 34L,” an ATSB statement said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Radar mapping of Sydney Airport on August 9 shows Virgin Australia Flight VA555 awaiting take-off at 10:05am while on a runway. (Supplied: FlightRadar24)<\/p>\n

“As the crew applied thrust for take-off, they observed the Qantas 737 begin to cross the runway ahead of them from taxiway Lima.<\/p>\n

“The Qantas crew reported having received a clearance from ATC to cross the runway.<\/p>\n

“The Virgin Australia crew reduced thrust and the aircraft came to a stop on the runway.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

At the same time, Qantas Australia Flight QF728 could be seen approaching the runway from an adjacent taxiway. (Supplied: FlightRadar24)<\/p>\n

The ATSB said air traffic controllers cancelled VA555’s take-off clearance at the same time its crew noticed the Qantas aircraft ahead.<\/p>\n

“Once the Qantas 737 was clear of the runway, the Virgin Australia 737 was re-cleared by ATC to commence take-off,” the ATSB said.<\/p>\n

It is understood the Qantas plane began to cross the runway about 1,200 metres ahead of where the Virgin Australia flight had started to take off, before its clearance was cancelled four seconds later.<\/p>\n

The ATSB said it would conduct interviews with the crew involved and review recorded flight data as part of its investigation.<\/p>\n

Air Services Australia said the two aircraft were never in close proximity and it was working with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to investigate the incident.<\/p>\n

Aviation boss summoned, airport workers stood down after Sydney near-miss<\/a><\/p>\n

Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell says pilots who avoided a near miss at Sydney Airport on Sunday morning “prevented what could have been far more serious”.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for Qantas and Virgin Australia told the ABC the airlines would support the ATSB investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n

In another incident earlier on Sunday, Jetstar Flight JQ402 was preparing to take off when it was forced to slam on the brakes<\/a> to avoid colliding with a Qatar Airways 777 that was being towed along the tarmac.<\/p>\n

ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said on Monday that the Jetstar incident “could have been far more serious” if the pilots involved had not been quick-thinking.<\/p>\n

He said those sorts of runway incidents “shouldn’t happen”.<\/p>\n

“We do have an aviation sector that is the envy of the world. That’s not to say that with incidents like this, we don’t take them seriously to improve,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But aircraft movements, whether it be in a busy airport or in the skies, are incredibly well coordinated here in Australia.”<\/p>\n

Two airport workers were stood down temporarily following the near collision, which left a Jetstar crew member injured yesterday.<\/p>\n

Two weeks earlier, on July 27, a QantasLink flight and a Qantas plane were involved in a near-miss on the tarmac.<\/p>\n

Recent workforce shortages and rostering issues have contributed to delays at Sydney Airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Safety authorities are investigating a third runway incident at Sydney Airport involving a Qantas flight crossing the path…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3859,1156,77000,12366,64,63,99,85565,3861,424306,16863,4497,3792,12807],"class_list":["post-853956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-air-travel","tag-aircraft","tag-airports","tag-atsb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-planes","tag-qantas","tag-qantas-australia","tag-safety","tag-sydney-airport","tag-travel","tag-virgin-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}