The Mercer PDA is near a busy international and domestic airport and close to the tracks flown by aircraft flying from Auckland to Tauranga, which alone elevates the risk of midair collisions if air traffic controllers lose awareness of aircraft operating in and around the PDA, or if aircraft deviate outside the PDA. The MOU between the Mercer Skydiving Centre and Airways allows for special communication procedures that mean an aircraft could be operating within the PDA for up to 15 minutes without communicating with air traffic controllers, which together with the poor definition of the PDA on controllers’ screens could contribute to controllers losing situational awareness of aircraft operating in and around the PDA and increase the risk of the required separation of aircraft being breached.
The Commission believes these are safety issues that the Director needs to address with Airways and recommends that the Director work with Airways to review the management of the Mercer PDA, including a general risk assessment of the operation, and consider whether these safety issues extend to other PDAs and associated memoranda of understanding.
