The LIZZI FIVE RWY 34 VICTOR ARRIVAL required a 3.5° descent profile after passing the SHEED waypoint for visual approach to runway 34 at Melbourne, increasing the risk of an unstable approach.
The ATSB is satisfied that the action taken by CASA in reviewing the approach design, in conjunction with the proposed amendment to MATS in March 2016 (see action AO-2012-120-NSA-050) has eliminated the risk associated with the safety issue.
In response to this safety issue, the Civil Aviation safety Authority (CASA) advised that:
CASA acknowledges the Safety Issue identified by the ATSB in relation to the descent profile of the LIZZI FIVE RWY 34 VICTOR ARRIVAL. 3.5 is at the upper limit specified in Procedures for Air Navigation Services – Operations (PANS-OPS) Volume II for instrument flight procedures designed for Category D aircraft (including the Boeing 747). CASA intends to engage with Airservices to ensure the procedure meets instrument procedure design and ‘flyability’ standards.
CASA provided further advice as follows:
The approach is designed to keep aircraft higher than would otherwise be the case because the approach passes directly over Essendon Airport. CASA has examined the approach after waypoint SHEED and considers it to be steeper than desirable but compliant with the ICAO standards in PAN-OPS (Doc 8168).
Furthermore, Airservices has instructed its controllers not to clear any “Super” and “Heavy” flight for the runway 34 visual STARS by publishing a Temporary Ops Instruction (TOI) to that effect. The exceptions are Australian and New Zealand operators because they are considered to be frequent enough visitors to MEL to have sufficient local knowledge to continue flying the approach. The TOI will be incorporated permanently into the Manual of Air Traffic Services at the next revision.
