Aviation State Engagement Forum
On this page
Closed consultation
Submit feedback to
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is seeking industry feedback on a review of the Southport airspace.
The issue
This follows the tragic mid-air collision between 2 rotary wing aircraft on 2 January 2023 in this airspace.
An initial review of the airspace has not indicated there are any safety issues relating to airspace arrangements, but this broader work will seek input from airspace users and operators.
CASA wants all pilots and operators that fly in this area to let us know about their experiences.While the investigation of the incident remains ongoing by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), any information that becomes available to the public from their investigation will be considered as part of this review.
Purpose
The scope of this airspace review includes:
- an analysis of aircraft operations within the review area
- analysis of aircraft landing areas (ALAs), helicopter landing sites (HLS) and the surrounding airspace architecture within the review area
- analysis of risks that may impact the safety of airspace users to determine the need for any changes to existing airspace architecture, services or procedures
- consider the need for any changes including changes in airspace classification, architecture, or the provision of services
- subject to the availability of the ATSB Aviation Safety Investigation report, consideration of any airspace related safety issues by the ATSB regarding the recent mid-air collision.
This airspace review will assess the suitability of the airspace bordered:
- between 7 and 20 nautical miles to the north of Gold Coast Airport (YBCG)
- between the eastern coastline and controlled airspace boundary to the west, from surface to 1500 feet above mean sea level (AMSL).
The area is adjacent to the Gold Coast Control Zone (CTR), below the Class C airspace established for operations into the YBCG. The airspace volume in this review area is wholly Class G (uncontrolled airspace) and is shown below in Figure 1.
The traffic mix is largely rotary wing helicopters operated by sightseeing organisations. These sightseeing activities do appear to be confined to known routes within controlled and non-controlled airspace. Sightseeing operations are characterised by seasonal peaks and troughs.
There is a considerable flow of mainly visual flight rules (VFR) traffic, which transit via controlled airspace along the coast. The VFR Lane to the west is an alternative to the coastal route for aircraft transiting to the north.
The consultation can be found on the CASA Consultation Hub.
