DH8D / B772, vicinity Sydney Australia, 2016

DH8D / B772, vicinity Sydney Australia, 2016

Summary

On 9 December 2016, a Bombardier DHC8-400 departing Sydney lost prescribed separation against an inbound Boeing 777-200 after its crew failed to ensure that the aircraft levelled as cleared at 5,000 feet and this was exceeded by 600 feet. The Investigation found that the First Officer, as Pilot Flying, had disconnected the autopilot prior to routinely changing the selected airspeed because it tended to disconnect when this was done with altitude capture mode active but had then failed to re-engage it. The Captain's lack of effective monitoring was attributed to distraction as he sought to visually acquire the conflicting traffic.

Description

On 9 December 2016, a Bombardier DHC8-400 (VH-LQG) being operated by Sunstate Airlines as QantasLink on a scheduled domestic passenger flight departing Sydney for Tamworth NSW failed to level at its acknowledged cleared altitude of 5,000 feet and subsequently lost separation in day VMC against an inbound Boeing 777-200 being operated by Air New Zealand on a scheduled international passenger flight from Auckland to Sydney. Initial corrective action by the DHC8 crew was triggered by sight of the conflicting traffic and as a result there was no actual risk of collision.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) based on ATC data and information from the DHC8 pilots.

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