[Peetwo]

Australia Day - Aviation WOFTAM awards - Part II  

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However it should also be pointed out that for our miniscule 4D the "A"-word aberrations do not end with the 'shambolic mess' of MH370...

Which brings me to the point of my post, I would like to put forward 4D as a nominee consideration for the inaugural Australia Day Aviation WOFTAM awards...

THE Civil Aviation Safety Authority has been plunged into chaos, labelled as “dysfunctional” in the wake of claims it knew about concerns over Mount Isa pilot Josh Hoch as early as 2013.

Lawyer Michael Spear told a court at Mr Hoch’s bail appearance that CASA had known about conduct related to the 342 charges police had laid.

“(The flights) have happened since 2013, CASA has known about these flights since 2013,” he said.

“Now if CASA had any concern about a pilot it can invoke provisions of section 30DC of the Civil Aviation Act instantly grounding a pilot if there is a serious and imminent risk to air safety.

“Now CASA has not done so, despite knowing of the allegations for months, these started back in October (2016) and certainly those charges from back in 2013.

“CASA conducted an audit for Mr Hoch and his company and reissued his AOC (Air Operators Certificate) earlier last year.

“If CASA hasn’t grounded him, they don’t consider him to be a serious risk to the public and I would submit that CASA would be far more cognisant of safety in aviation than the police service.”

Which somewhat inevitably prompted Kharon to write this:

Now may we have an open inquiry?– Please.

We called a no confidence on CASA back in 2012. We have suffered through a Senate inquiry and the Forsyth inquiry and had any hopes of CASA reform dashed, obfuscated and cynically manipulated. Result: Mt Isa.  Clearly visible in the difference between the police case work and the CASA no work in the Mt Isa case.  The Qld police may rightfully claim all the credit and kudos. Had CASA been the prime mover, then they would be the first to crow and beat their chests, the incumbent minister leading the chorus. Ineffectual does not cover the gap, neither does ‘unfortunate’; neither does claiming to help, after the fact.

The reasons for the ongoing lack of confidence, faith and trust are as simple and clear now as when they first emerged.  The case of the Guinea Pigs was, though no longer, a perfect opportunity for CASA to recover at least some of their credibility and reputation.  There can be no serious reform or sensible action taken in a case like the Mt Isa debacle which would not produce a cynical response from industry. The Qld police investigation would be viewed ‘straight’ and carry the credibility of a ‘true’ impartial (just the facts) investigation. Had CASA done it – very few would believe it, any of it – in fact, many would say and support the notion that it was just another ‘fit up’.

Why? Well it has in the past been a rigged game, so often, played so many times that it is perfectly natural to assume CASA were ‘under orders’ to nail, at any price an operator or a person.

Why? Well, the GP3 case presents evidence, untested to be sure, but nonetheless supporting claims of ‘embuggerance’. Until this type of complaint is examined – properly – and corrective action taken – publicly, then there is no hope of probity in any CASA investigation, let alone the presentation of ‘facts and circumstances’, the ‘hay-stacking’ and the willingness to swear, under oath to calumny. Simply put – very few would believe a single word CASA said; that’s why.

How could ‘we’, the industry rely on CASA to investigate the Mt Isa case in a fair and impartial manner while their track record is less than adequate, their probity questionable and their motives beneath contempt. Until CASA is prepared to take a very long, very hard look at their past actions and address those issues, openly, honestly and publicly, there can be no trust. Must we now rely solely on the police services to investigate. It has reached a point where industry needs to rely, very heavily, on the RAT Senators to mount a general inquiry, with public submissions into the actions and behaviour of what is laughingly referred to as ‘the’ Civil Aviation Safety Authority’.    

The list is long Senators, the CASA defences are strong – and they have been dodging ‘official’ bullets for a long, long while now. When a thing like the Forsyth report is passed off as ‘an opinion’ it is time for some serious accounting. I believe the results of that accounting will shock even the well informed RAT committee; as it has many ‘independent’ public figures.  

That the management of ‘matters aeronautical’ can be left in the hands of a deeply flawed operation, like the CASA will, soon or late, become a matter of national interest. The ramifications of prevarication will tarnish any government which had many an opportunity to act in the public interest, but failed to do so.

Selah.

    

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A couple of additions to the commendation file to support my now seconded (thanks Gobbles ) nomination of DDDD_MNFI for the 2017 Aviation WOFTAM award...

First in a follow up to the disturbing revelations still coming out of the rogue pilot/dysfunctional regulator story.

From a PT article - see HERE - yesterday:  

..CASA is on its record an organisation totally indifferent to the blood on its hands from recent blatant failures to carry out it duties. It doesn’t recognise its guilt or its incompetence, and it has made fools of the aviation ministers responsible for its activities for at least as far back as the Seaview disaster of 1994...

...The actions of CASA in relation to a pilot who may have been unlicensed for the purposes of his operations for a prolonged period of activity during which police allege he could have killed the occupants of planes which he had sabotaged require very close scrutiny by the Minister for Infrastructure, Darren Chester.

Not scrutiny passed off to his discredited civil servants who have apparently talked nonsense to him since he took up the portfolio last year.  Real scrutiny, by the Minister, of the performance of what many see as a rogue organisation that has a culture of tolerating known unsafe operations....

And don't we have plenty of evidence in the AP archives to back up the PT OP and OBS.

Note that the scathing PT article also drew attention to the ATSB continuing dodgy involvement in the attempted CASA PelAir cover-up scandal:

..It subsequently attempted to suppress that audit with the co-operation of the ATSB, the accident investigator, but was found out by a highly critical all party Senate committee hearing into what remains an unfinished saga. The ATSB was forced to withdraw its first accident report into the Pel-Air crash, which was a shamefully inadequate investigation, and its new inquiry, which was supposed to report more than a year ago, is understood to have run into a number of ‘difficulties’...

Next - 4D features again in the Oz today as the minister responsible for overseeing yet another self-inflicted and escalating CASA clusterduck on CAO 48.1...
Reference - Fort Fumble under siege on CAO 48.1:

JW - ..Taxpayers shouldn’t pay for CASA’s lack of self-confidence on fatigue laws...

..On January 9, CASA tendered for specialists to undertake the review. Does the unexpected expense to taxpayers that comes with reviewing this largely uncontroversial set of safety rules warrant that rule set being examined by the highest bidder? When it comes to pilots’ duty times, being “within the maximum” doesn’t always mean “safe”, and never has. But in the context of pilot fatigue mitigation measures, even getting close to the limits of existing prescriptive duty time rules can result in tragedy. This is why the new fatigue rules in CAO 48.1 must be implemented: so we can move to the modern and science-based principles that fall under the umbrella of FRMS.

Perhaps I am being too cynical and CASA is simply trying to get the regulatory mix right. That is an admirable goal. But in the face of limited resources, the swath of reviews being undertaken by CASA on topics as far ranging as medical certification processes to drones, would suggest that perhaps CASA ought to listen less, and assertively direct more...

---

&..
..Transport Minister Darren Chester has confirmed that lobbying by regional airlines, among other stakeholders, has led CASA to delay and review the proposed rules for pilot fatigue management...

...Mr Chester, a Nationals MP from Gippsland in regional Victoria, confirmed that the government had received numerous representations against all or part of the proposed rules.

“Several stakeholder groups, including regional airlines, general aviation and pilot unions, have lobbied against all or part of new rules. CASA has agreed to delay and review the rules to ensure they are appropriate and effective across all sectors of the commercial aviation industry,” a spokesman for the minister said...

Well the 4D commendation shit-list continues to grow but will this be enough to sway IOS voters in the upcoming inaugural Aviation WOFTAM poll? I guess we'll have to wait & see...


MTF...P2