The Jetstar Airbus 320 pilot was forced to brake suddenly to avoid a collision with the Qatari plane on the tarmac.<\/p>\n
The Qatar Airways Boeing 777, which was not carrying any passengers, was being towed by an aircraft tug and received minor damage.<\/p>\n
A Jetstar spokesperson said its aircraft was following instructions from air traffic controllers when the pilots were forced to brake firmly as another aircraft came into “close proximity”.<\/p>\n
Transport Minister Catherine King said the series of disruptions over consecutive days at Sydney Airport, with grounded flights and lengthy delays compounded by Sunday’s near miss, were not good enough.<\/p>\n
“Airservices Australia needs to be better at managing these disruptions,” she said.<\/p>\n
“They cause significant challenges to passengers, staff and airlines.”<\/p>\n
The minister confirmed a meeting with Airservices Australia would take place on Monday.<\/p>\n
The government-owned body is responsible managing air traffic in more than 10% of the world’s airspace.<\/p>\n
King would not elaborate on Sunday’s low-speed near collision, with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau launching an investigation.<\/p>\n
The bureau’s commissioner Angus Mitchell said flight crew, tug operators, air traffic controllers and other witnesses would be interviewed, while relevant footage would be reviewed.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/the-air-traffic-control-tower-rises-above-sydney-kingsford-s-VPNGGGVFZJH2HG64EMSKYIYBVU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The air traffic control tower rises above Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport (file image). (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n
“It certainly is a serious incident … this is the second one within two weeks,” he told ABC News on Monday.<\/p>\n
“Whether it was a breakdown in communication, in actually getting the right message to the right people or the coordination of it, we’re yet to ascertain.”<\/p>\n
A ground controller and tug operator have been stood down.<\/p>\n
Air traffic control was reportedly operating under restricted hours between 6am and 8am on Sunday, reducing the number of flights arriving and departing due to staffing shortages.<\/p>\n
An injured Jetstar crew member received medical attention at the scene on Sunday, while no passengers were injured.<\/p>\n
The union representing air traffic controllers, Civil Air Australia, has been contacted for a comment.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s incident followed delays to more than 150 flights passing through Sydney on Saturday as airport operations struggled due to a lack of personnel.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including St John braces for another hectic day, and a Brazilian footballers goal celebration goes bad. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s aviation industry heads have been summoned for an urgent meeting with the government after two aircraft narrowly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15656,85,138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-564360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-air-travel","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}