Virgin pilot first to spot three Chinese warships off Australia, Airservices Australia says

An Australian air services company revealed that a Virgin Australia pilot was the first to spot three Chinese warships off the east coast of Australia last week. The three warships, including a frigate, a cruiser, and a supply ship, were discovered in the Tasman Sea, just 150 nautical miles from Sydney, on Friday morning.

Beijing has confirmed that it was conducting live-fire exercises in international waters at the time. Rob Sharp, CEO of Airservices Australia, told the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee last night that the agency received an alert about the warships at 9:58 a.m.

Mr. Sharp stated, "Effectively, a Virgin Australia pilot notified our air traffic controllers that a foreign warship was broadcasting that they were conducting live-fire exercises 300 nautical miles east of our coast. That's how we initially became aware of it." Peter Curran, Deputy CEO of Airservices Australia, added that the warships were detected on an international common frequency, which air traffic controllers do not monitor, but pilots do.

According to the head of the government-owned agency, a hazard alert was issued to all flights in the area within two minutes of receiving the report at 10:00 a.m., and the Australian Defence Force was notified shortly thereafter. Mr. Curran said, "At the time, we didn't know whether this was a potential hoax or a genuine situation. We simply passed on the information as per standard procedure."

Mr. Curran stated that an Emirates pilot contacted the Chinese warships at 10:18 a.m. and was informed that they were conducting live-fire exercises. Air traffic controllers subsequently rerouted 49 flights. "Some of those were aircraft that were in the air at the time we first became aware of the matter, and many of them were flights that were subsequently planned to be rerouted around that airspace," Mr. Curran said. "As a precaution, flight planning continued to be rerouted throughout the weekend."

Mr. Curran said that by yesterday morning, the three ships had moved further south into the Tasman Sea, away from flight paths, so flights no longer needed to be rerouted. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked at a press conference this morning whether he was concerned that Virgin Australia was the first to report the Chinese warships, but he insisted that the Department of Defence "certainly knew" of their presence. "Australia has deployed frigates to monitor, through maritime and air assets, the presence of these Chinese vessels in the area," he said at a press conference this morning. Last week, Albanese confirmed that China's actions were in accordance with international law, but Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressed concern about the transparency of the tests.