British Aerospace Plc BAe 146-200A , VH-JJX

The aircraft was enroute from Alice Springs to Cairns and was
displayed to the Daintree sector controller in the Brisbane air
traffic control centre, as a green jurisdiction track and label .
Without notice, the display changed to an uncoupled black track
without label data, resulting in the sector controller losing
situational awareness. Investigation revealed that the Cairns tower
coordinator controller had cancelled the aircraft's flight data
record (FDR) in the Australian advanced air traffic control system
(TAAATS). The coordinator had assumed that an aircraft on the
ground at Cairns was the aircraft displayed as airborne and
consequently felt it was unnecessary to check further prior to
deleting the record. Local instructions precluded the cancellation
of flight data records not under the coordinator's jurisdiction
without prior consultation/coordination with other air traffic
control units. The possibility of this occurring had been
recognised by management and the instructions were issued in an
endeavour to prevent inadvertent deletion of a flight data record.
TAAATS displays a warning message requesting confirmation of the
requested action when a controller deletes an FDR for an aircraft.
This message does not warn controllers that they do not have
jurisdiction of the aircraft. Airservices Australia have proposed
that the warning message for non-jurisdiction FDRs should be
amended to alert controllers to the fact that coordination is
required prior to deleting the FDR. SAFETY ACTION Local safety
action A request to change the warning message has been submitted
by Airservices Australia Northern District (This is one of many
TAAATS software modification requests that have been submitted).
The modification is unlikely to be actioned in the short term due
to the need to action higher priority tasks. Bureau of Air Safety
Investigation safety action BASI will monitor Airservices' actions
and, in particular, any system modifications which are made to
prevent further similar occurrences.