Airline pilots surprised by Chinese live fire warning near Australia messages show

SYDNEY - Pilots first heard about a Chinese live-fire naval exercise near Australia last week when already in the air, receiving messages that forced some to change paths through a busy air corridor, satellite text messages to and from pilots seen by Reuters show.

The incident highlights how airlines are increasingly having to react at short notice to geopolitical disruptions and military hazards, such as missile and drone barrages between Israel and Iran in 2024.

It also shows how China’s military, in its first drills in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, is raising tensions by being more assertive across the Indo-Pacific region, according to Western defence analysts, including near Taiwan.

China has said it gave adequate warning to Australian and New Zealand authorities about the exercise.

Planes first heard about a live-fire drill when a Virgin Australia pilot picked up a Chinese navy broadcast on the 121.5 MHz emergency radio channel pilots use to communicate between planes at 9.58am Sydney time, on Feb 21, according to Australian officials.

The pilot reported the broadcast to an air traffic controller, who passed the message to Australias military, according to Airservices Australia.

“At that stage, we didn’t know whether it was a potential hoax or real,” said Mr Peter Curran, deputy CEO of the air traffic control agency, at a parliamentary hearing this week.

Air traffic control started sending hazard alerts to nearby aircraft, including a Singapore Airlines flight from Christchurch to Singapore and an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Melbourne around 11.30am, according to previously unreported text messages.

Half an hour later, the Air New Zealand pilots told the ground: “Hi, lots of chatter on 121.5 including Chinese navy. Same pos(ition) and ht/radius as you advised. Cheers.”

An airline dispatcher told the Air New Zealand pilots 20