Here’s what we know about how Australia learned about Chinese navy exercises held in the Tasman Sea over two days
In the five days since Chinese navy ships held live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, an unclear picture has emerged of who knew what – and when.
Australian Senate estimates heard the first knowledge Australian authorities had of the potentially dangerous live-fire activity was through a civilian pilot flying a commercial flight over the area. The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said the New Zealand navy notified Australia “at about the same time” as the pilot notified Airservices Australia.
A spokesperson for Australia’s defence minister has said the government has raised concern over a “lack of notice” about the live-fire drills with Beijing.
But China says this is untrue and that the training exercises were “conducted with repeated safety notices that had been issued in advance”.
The defence ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said China’s actions were “entirely in accordance with international law” and established practices and would not impact aviation safety. He said the live-fire drills took place on the high seas far from Australia’s coastline.
Here is what we know about how the drills were communicated so far:
9.30am: A flotilla of three Chinese warships – the Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the Renhai-class cruiser Zunyi and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu – begins a series of live-fire drills. According to Australia’s defence department, the ships are stationed 346 nautical miles (640km) off Eden.
9.58am: Airservices Australia receives notification of the live-fire drill from a Virgin pilot who heard a broadcast from a foreign warship that they are conducting live firing 300 nautical miles off Australia’s coast. This is the first Airservices Australia has learned of the Chinese naval live-fire exercise, according to its chief executive, Rob Sharp.
The Airservices Australia deputy chief executive, Peter Curran, later told Senate estimates that the Chinese navy’s message was broadcast in English on an international guard frequency – an emergency radio channel monitored by pilots but not by air traffic control. The aircraft was capable of picking up the radio signal within 250 nautical miles of the vessel.
10am: Air traffic controllers issue a hazard alert within two minutes of being alerted to the drill by the Virgin pilot. They establish an 18km exclusion zone around the flotilla, extending to a height of 45,000 feet.
10.08am: Airservices Australia notifies the Australian defence force’s Joint Operations Command Headquarters about the drill, 10 minutes after the initial contact from the Virgin pilot. “At that stage, we didn’t know whether it was a potential hoax or real,” Curran told senators.
10.18am: A separate commercial flight, operated by Emirates, is in radio contact with the Chinese warships. The Emirates flight is informed that the live-firing exercise had commenced at 9.30am and would conclude at 2pm.
“We presume … that as the aircraft got closer to the vessel, it picked up the transmissions. Those transmissions may have been being made for some time,” Curran said.
11.01am: The New Zealand navy, which had been shadowing the Chinese flotilla, informs Australia of the life-fire exercise.
“The advice through the New Zealand vessel on station through its national reporting: we received that at 11.01am. That is approximately 50 minutes, or somewhat less than an hour, since that advice came to us from Airservices,” the chief of the defence force, Adm David Johnston, later told Senate estimates.
11.28am: The Airservices chief executive calls the CEO of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to inform it about the drill.
From 11.20am to 11.30am: CASA calls the deputy secretary of Australia’s transport department.
Noon: An industry telephone conference is held, including Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar and possibly other airlines. Emails are later sent to international airlines notifying them of the Chinese exercise.
2pm: Chinese military live-firing exercises were due to end, according to earlier radio transmissions.
Ultimately, 49 aircraft diverted their flight paths on Friday. Some were re-routed while they were in the air, while others were given different flight paths to avoid the Chinese flotilla’s location at sea.
9.30am-2pm: Chinese navy live-firing exercises continue in international waters in the Tasman Sea.
Flights continue to be diverted until Monday. Senate estimates heard ships had since moved further south, away from trans-Tasman flight paths.