The last thing you want to see out of the window during the middle of your flight is a frigate of a foreign navy firing its guns. This was unfortunately the case for the passengers on a Virgin Australia flight from Sydney to Queenstown, New Zealand in February. The Boeing 737 had inadvertently flown within the vicinity of three Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea, an incident that sparked controversy as Australia’s military was unaware that the Chinese Navy had vessels just 300 nautical miles off the country’s east coast.
The audio recording of the conversation between the flight crew and air traffic control have been released recently under Australia’s freedom of information laws and the incident sounded like it was ripped from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel. The audio obtained by Nine News featured a Virgin Australia pilot contacting ATC to ask, “We just had a warning from a Chinese naval taskforce that they’re doing a live firing exercise… is anyone aware of that?” The controller confirmed that they haven’t received any warning, but there was just a 10-mile exclusion radius. Then, in a moment of bleak humor, the pilot said, “So if we go missing, you’ll know what happened, hey?” The controller replied, “Good luck.”
China’s military posturing could have put civilian lives at risk
The incident with Virgin Australia Flight 161 occurred during a month-long voyage around Australia. The People’s Liberation Army Navy never officially stated why it deployed a cruiser, a frigate and a supply ship to lurk around another country’s territorial waters. According to the New York Times, the PLA Navy’s small flotilla crossed in and out of Australia’s exclusive economic zone, which extends out 200 nautical miles from the coast. It was likely geopolitical posturing because the voyage coincided with the U.S. Navy’s top admiral in the Pacific visiting Australia.
While the Virgin Australia plane landed safely in New Zealand, it’s already worrying to see passenger airliners in the middle of a military confrontation. Commercial planes can often be shot down due to a lack of operational judgment. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine by pro-Russian rebels in 2014, killing all 298 people onboard. A Dutch-led multinational investigation found that the surface-to-air missile was built and supplied by Russia. A Dutch court tried three men in absentia for mass murder and downing an aircraft. The judges sentenced them to life in prison but noted that they intended to shoot down a military aircraft.
