Flight Path Forum is holding a public meeting at Coolum Civic Centre on Sunday 20 October at 10am to alert residents and the flying public to the dangers of proposed flight paths over an approved hard rock quarry at Yandina Creek.
“We urge residents to come along to this meeting, and hear the facts,” said FPF President Cheryl Sykes.
“We will also be advising Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin and Air New Zealand of the risks to their passengers on arriving and departing flights when the new runway is in operation.
“Aviation risks from quarry fly rock during blasting are a known safety hazard. Right now Christchurch International Airport Limited and Air New Zealand are opposing a quarry on the outskirts of Christchurch, due to concerns about aviation safety.
“We will also be bringing the issue to the attention of Palisades Investment Partners, who will be the operators of the airport and new runway.”
Ms Sykes said the proposed arrival and departure flight paths go directly over the quarry site, and at this point can be flying as low as 1000 feet.
She said expert evidence in the Planning and Environment Court by Sunshine Coast Council had shown that fly rock from blasting could go as high as 1600 feet and up to 24 blast events are predicted for this quarry each year.
“Council’s recent responses to our concerns are simply not good enough,” she said. “They must explain why they were strongly arguing the safety risks before the Planning and Environment Court in 2013, and yet these known hazards were not documented by the Council in the Environmental Impact Statement prepared in 2014.
“Put bluntly, the Sunshine Coast Council EIS was totally silent on a known and documented fundamental public and aviation safety issue. It was therefore misleading in a substantial way.
“This failure has subsequently been compounded by Air Services Australia, which also did not mention the quarry issues in their consultation.
“There was never any need to embed a permanent safety risk into this airspace design and proposed flight paths. This risk has always been and more importantly, still is totally avoidable. We are now at the point when CASA is considering an airspace application which includes the flight paths over the quarry.
“For over six years, the flying public, and Sunshine Coast and Noosa residents have been kept in the dark and expected to simply trust authorities which have not earned that trust.
“Flight Path Forum intends to pursue this issue with the Coordinator-General, CASA, Air Services Australia, and the airlines that will operate on the new flight paths. We believe that any authority which puts safety first would insist on examining alternative flight paths which avoid the quarry altogether.“
