Old Redgum trees provide a perfect object lesson for Australian Aviation regulators. In those trees, the ever present termites eat out the centre of major branches from the inside, leaving the branch looking perfectly sturdy and unmarked on the surface. Then one day the branch fractures with no warning at all. Australians are cautioned against pitching their tents under these trees but every year some forget and pay the ultimate price.
The administrative equivalent of this “hollowing out “ process is what destroyed Ansett Airlines. The termites, sorry, bean counters, removed the administrative staff at the core of the company - the maintenance planners and gradually the heart of the aircraft engineering safety system - the maintenance plan, decayed and fell apart because there were not enough people left to organise it. When ATSB finally looked, along with CASA, they found that the Ansett aircraft were approaching that same rotten state as a Redgum. They were nice and shiny on the outside, but underneath the paint??
The forthcoming collapse of aviation in Australia will be very similar but a different termite is involved. Ansett was eaten alive by bean counters (accountants). General Aviation is being eaten alive by a different termite - lawyers. These well meaning folk are creating impossibly dense regulations, backed up by draconian penalties, that convert what should be solid safety practices into useless pulp. Over time, operators concentrate on satisfying the letter of the regulations but the actual safety intent is lost. This “hollowing out “ results in a safety system that is focussed on being legally compliant but in reality is totally unsafe. Like our proverbial Redgum, nothing happens for a long time, but underneath the shiny corporate exterior, the termites are eating away…… Until with no warning - “crack”.
Cases in point. Does anyone report defects and discovered safety issues to ATSB and/or CASA any more? Ever heard a “fuel Mayday” call as prescribed by CASA? Does the maintenance release tell the whole unvarnished truth? Ditto log books and maintenance records? As a matter of fact, is the plain unvarnished truth on display everywhere? I don’t think so, the penalty for candour is investigation and potentially prosecution at the whim of CASA.
Everyone is focussed on legal compliance, not safety.
The administrative equivalent of this “hollowing out “ process is what destroyed Ansett Airlines. The termites, sorry, bean counters, removed the administrative staff at the core of the company - the maintenance planners and gradually the heart of the aircraft engineering safety system - the maintenance plan, decayed and fell apart because there were not enough people left to organise it. When ATSB finally looked, along with CASA, they found that the Ansett aircraft were approaching that same rotten state as a Redgum. They were nice and shiny on the outside, but underneath the paint??
The forthcoming collapse of aviation in Australia will be very similar but a different termite is involved. Ansett was eaten alive by bean counters (accountants). General Aviation is being eaten alive by a different termite - lawyers. These well meaning folk are creating impossibly dense regulations, backed up by draconian penalties, that convert what should be solid safety practices into useless pulp. Over time, operators concentrate on satisfying the letter of the regulations but the actual safety intent is lost. This “hollowing out “ results in a safety system that is focussed on being legally compliant but in reality is totally unsafe. Like our proverbial Redgum, nothing happens for a long time, but underneath the shiny corporate exterior, the termites are eating away…… Until with no warning - “crack”.
Cases in point. Does anyone report defects and discovered safety issues to ATSB and/or CASA any more? Ever heard a “fuel Mayday” call as prescribed by CASA? Does the maintenance release tell the whole unvarnished truth? Ditto log books and maintenance records? As a matter of fact, is the plain unvarnished truth on display everywhere? I don’t think so, the penalty for candour is investigation and potentially prosecution at the whim of CASA.
Everyone is focussed on legal compliance, not safety.