I’ve flown planes into Sydney more than 1000 times. These near-misses don’t surprise me

August 14, 2026 — 5:08pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

After almost five decades in the aviation business flying to all corners of the globe, I can assure you that some of the most complicated parts of any journey are not the actual flying but the taxiing to and from a busy runway.

I was the captain of an A380 lined up on a runway on the north complex of Los Angles (LAX) waiting for my take-off clearance when another aircraft landing on the parallel runway turned off and crossed the runway I was lined up on. As that “intruder” aircraft entered my runway all the lights on the ground in front of me turned bright red, leaving me in no doubt it was unsafe to take off. In this example, no one was at fault as I had not yet received my take-off clearance and air traffic control (ATC) had cleared the other aircraft to cross in front of me. But I was grateful for the automated back-up system just in case a super-busy human made a mistake.

I have flown into and out of Sydney Airport 1055 times according to my logbook, and I have to say the system of monitoring ground movement of aircraft, on active runways and taxiways, is not as good as I’ve seen........

© The Age