Near-misses over Sydney: Liz Hayes looks up at Australia's uncontrolled skies
A second, shorter video brought in Civil Air Union president Scott Nugent to explain what happens inside the control tower.
7 News SpotlightStory of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
'The secret' inside air traffic control | Aviation safety under the microscope
Five days old and close to 100,000 views, "'The secret' inside air traffic control" is the video doing the most work on 7NEWS Spotlight right now. Liz Hayes, the longtime 60 Minutes reporter who now fronts investigations for Seven, starts from the string of near-misses at Australia's major airports and then turns the question upward: if the trouble is not only on the runway, how safe is the country's vast uncontrolled airspace?
The comment section reads like a staff room. Many viewers write about overtime and fatigue in a job where tiredness has no place, a few remember friends who left the tower because of the stress, and people from the UK and the US say the story sounds very familiar at home. Dick Smith, the former chairman of the aviation safety authority, comes up again and again.
Two days later the channel followed with a short piece built around the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's preliminary reports into the Sydney incidents, which name staffing in Sydney Tower as a recurring line of inquiry, though the bureau has not decided whether it contributed. Scott Nugent, a controller and president of the Civil Air Union, walks viewers through the tower.
Older investigations are still finding people too. A look at ultra-processed food on supermarket shelves has passed half a million views, and Michael Usher's film about Tilly, the girl at the center of a childhood dementia treatment, keeps drawing a steady audience.
The whole channel is running well above its usual daily pace, though among the news broadcasters of similar size it is one of the quieter ones; 10 News and Arise News are having the big weeks.
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What viewers say
More controllers needed and less pressure
@Carine8987See it on YouTubeArthur Hailey's 'Airport' features the stresses faced by air traffic controllers especially if there's a disaster. And that story was set back in the 1960s.
@hreaderSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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The videos drawing views on 7 News Spotlight right now
- Channel
- 7 News Spotlight
- Subscribers
- 1,210,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 530,080
- Videos published this week
- 2
- Video published
- September 28, 2026
- Video views so far
- 99,314
- Views on its first day
- 32,861
The numbers
Here is how 7 News Spotlight's week looks in numbers.
💡 Test your knowledge
Arthur Hailey's novel about a busy airport on one snowy night, mentioned by a viewer, is called what?
Arthur Hailey's 1968 bestseller Airport, later a 1970 film, follows the people running an airport during a blizzard.
