Former CASA Chairman Dick Smith says the regulator's advice to use the area frequency to broadcast on is dangerous.
CASA has advised pilots using airfields not marked on any charts to broadcast on the area frequency rather than Multicom 126.7, which is the convention if the airfield is marked.
Smith has slammed the advice, saying it goes against the original intentions of the National Airspace System (NAS) and may cause interference with airlines.
"CASA seems to be obsessed with a non-existent frequency congestion issue but do not understand that no country in the world allows small aircraft to give non-directed calls on frequencies that are used by Air Traffic Controllers to separate airline aircraft. This is for obvious safety reasons," he points out.
“There are many times when an immediate call has to be given to an airline aircraft for safety purposes, however if a taxiing aircraft at a small strip is blocking the frequency, this call may not get through to the airline crew.
“After communications with CASA it is obvious that they do not understand the safety implications of their Advice – in fact, they have no understanding of the airspace policy that was approved by Federal Cabinet.
“Whilst I agree that the chance of an accident is small because of this unique CASA Advice, the result of an accident could be horrendous – with up to 500 people being killed if two airline aircraft happened to collide because an important communication from Air Traffic Control was blocked. That is clearly why other countries prohibit small aircraft from giving non-directed calls on Air Traffic Control separation frequencies.
“All pilots complying with this latest CASA Advice should be aware that they could unintentionally be responsible for a major airline accident in the future."
The CASA advice is given in CAAP 166-1(3) Section 7.