[Peetwo]

Breaking news: Fatal accident near Jimboomba QLD.

Via QLD Times:

BREAKING: Two dead as light plane crashes in Scenic Rim
26th Sep 2017 10:32 AM | Updated: 11:07 AM


Two people have been killed in a light plane crash at Allenview, near Jimboomba. Credit: Nine News Queensland


by Helen Spelitis


POLICE are working to contact the families of two men killed in a light plane crash. 
The plane came down in a grassed area at Allenview, near Jimboomba about 9.45am. 
Emergency services were alerted to the incident by a member of the public who sounded the alarm just before 10am.

The aircraft is a Diamond Da 40 and was significantly damaged in the crash landing. 
Emergency services are still on the scene. 

A Queensland Ambulance spokesperson said the plane came down on a grassed area and multiple units responded.

"No one required transport," the QAS spokesperson said. 

RIP -

[Peetwo]

Breaking news: Fatal accident near Jimboomba QLD.

Via QLD Times:

BREAKING: Two dead as light plane crashes in Scenic Rim
26th Sep 2017 10:32 AM | Updated: 11:07 AM


Two people have been killed in a light plane crash at Allenview, near Jimboomba. Credit: Nine News Queensland


by Helen Spelitis


POLICE are working to contact the families of two men killed in a light plane crash. 
The plane came down in a grassed area at Allenview, near Jimboomba about 9.45am. 
Emergency services were alerted to the incident by a member of the public who sounded the alarm just before 10am.

The aircraft is a Diamond Da 40 and was significantly damaged in the crash landing. 
Emergency services are still on the scene. 

A Queensland Ambulance spokesperson said the plane came down on a grassed area and multiple units responded.

"No one required transport," the QAS spokesperson said. 

Update: Via SBS & Youtube.

Mayday call attempted before fatal crash

Two men are dead after a light plane crashed on a turf farm south of Brisbane. (AAP)

An instructor and his student are dead after a light plane crash in southeast Queensland.

A mayday call was made but not completed by the pilot of a training flight which crashed into a paddock south of Brisbane, killing two men aboard.

The instructor and his student died when their single-engine, four-seat Diamond DA-40 crashed into a turf farm at Allenview, near Beaudesert, on Tuesday morning.

A distress call was sent from the aircraft but not finished, a Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman said.

It's believed the training flight took off from Archerfield airport.

Efforts are under way to formally identify the men, and police are still trying to contact the victims' families.

Teams of Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators are on their way from Brisbane and Canberra.

They will spend days examining the site of the crash and interviewing witnesses and are hoping to retrieve flight data from recording devices attached to avionics.

Photos from the scene show the broken plane lying on a large expanse of grass but it is too early to speculate about what caused the fatal crash, the ATSB and CASA say.

It is the second fatal aircraft crash in southern Queensland in a week.

Experienced instructor Jeremy Thompson and his 60-year-old student Norbert Gross died when their glider nosedived 15 metres and crashed into a field near the runway at the Darling Downs Soaring Club last Tuesday.

Conditions were fine that day and Gliding Federation of Australia operations executive manager Christopher Thorpe believes the pilot must have suffered a medical event.

Following investigations into the Allenview crash the ATSB will prepare a report, which is expected to take months to complete.

RIP -  

[Kharon]

Please explain – Nah, don’t bother.

There were no injuries, while the aircraft suffered minor damage.

The ATSB report said an initial engineering examination found the number four bearing on the right hand engine failed.

“The bearing failure allowed the high pressure compressor to move off-centreline within the engine. This caused further damage and led to complete failure of the engine,” the ATSB said.

“The damage to the failed bearing was consistent with overheating due to a lack of lubrication. At the time of the release of this report, the reason for the lack of lubrication to the number four bearing had not been determined.”


The ATSB said the engine manufacturer’s engineering examination of the failed engine was not completed at the time its final report into the incident was released.

The Saab 340B is powered by two General Electric CT7-9B turboprop engines.

There, in half a dozen short, accurate sentences the ATSB report is complete – so why all the fluff and nonsense about flight crew actions – they followed SOP – end of. So how can this be a ‘final’ report? This ‘report’ is fatuous and contributes SFA to the overall safety of the SAAB fleet. We really need to know why there was a lack of lubrication to the  #4 bearing. There are lots of #4 bearings in service.

All this bollocks about what the bloody flight crew did is, IMO, deliberately drawing attention away from the radical cause of the incident; I wonder why ATSB has taken to salting their puerile, trite little offerings with this type of non essential rubbish.  Captains comments – WTD – why publish that? What purpose can it possibly serve? A straight forward engine shut down and return to land; surrounded by umpteen miles of fluff and little substance.

Please explain how this report can be considered adequate; let alone ‘final’.  Bucket please.

Toot – bollocks – toot – bollocks – toot, toot, toot…..

[thorn bird]

Awww K. The poor old bastard child of CAsA is simply following the screaming Skull protocols.

These are invoked in the case of RPT operators, especially those that have made significant "donations" to politicians.

They consist of:

"The pilot Dun nit" protocol, which is the primary tenet.
If its difficult to establish the pilot dun nit the "Skew the report" protocol is invoked.
This requires requires any perceived deficiencies by the pilot brought to the forefront in the report, everything else hidden in a maze of gobbledygook. If this doesn't look to convincing we then move on to the "Clutching at straws" protocol. This involves employing a myriad of "experts", for credibility, to forensically examine ever facet of the pilots perceived actions or inactions, then drafting, opinions, fiddled figures, or simply made up stuff into the report to strongly imply the pilot dun nit. Of course this protocol can be incredibly expensive, experts like G. Thomas  don't come cheap.
Love to know whats been spent so far on the Pelair report.

Over on UP a post to send a shiver up your spine.

Quote:

Well I can tell a few stories about non-standard SOPs at JQ...

I joined JQ about a decade ago. New to AB but many many years on Boeings. Early line training taught the JQ go-around "double-tap" technique, where you briefly advance the thrust levers to TOGA and immediately pull them back. No documentation. No SOPs. No FCOM amendment. All word-of-mouth. I queried and remember saying that it was a set-up, bound to trap someone and at the very least, it should be documented and run by AB. Told to wind my neck in, quite abusive actually and treated like an idiot.

If I'd put in paperwork I'd have been a hero for predicting exactly what occurred in YMML six months later when a JQ aircraft went within 50'AGL during a mis-handled GA, where the very technique I was criticising failed for the exact reasons I gave. However it transpired that the paperwork for THAT incident was suppressed by JQ and not passed to CASA, so I have long comforted myself with the theory that if I had said anything at the time my efforts would have been similarly suppressed, as well as facing the possibility of becoming known as a trouble maker, and that being held against me when it came to command upgrade.

During command training while on a turn-around we had a minor maintenance issue, that I duly wrote up in the Tech Log, annotated with the correct MEL actions. This was allowed at outports with no maintenance support if the MEL only had "O" actions, and no "M" actions. A reasonable and sensible policy. However the Checker queried my actions because it would make us late. I had a copy of the turn-around sequence, where everything is mapped out and timed to the minute, to make turn-arounds 35 minutes. I pointed out that no where on this sequence allowed any time for maintenance actions, therefore if there is any Tech Log/maintenance duties we would automatically be late. His response: I should leave all Tech Log/maintenance/MEL actions to be done at the end of the day, after the last leg, and disregard the MEL on turn-arounds. He was smart enough not to put that in writing, but he wrote me up badly, especially highlighting how I could not "manage time during a turn-around".

Pressure to not follow CASA rules. On the MEL. From a checker. On command upgrade.

Again I should have put paperwork in, directly to CASA. At the very least this checker should have lost his quals as a checker, but as it appeared to be unofficial JQ policy the whole attitude of JQ needed adjusting. I needed the job and the upgrade, so I kept quiet.

A friend had a loss of hydraulics on take-off from Melbourne. Followed the ECAM. Second hydraulic system failed. Flew circuit, returned on the blue system (this is the tiny little third system -practically nothing on it - for those not familiar with AB). Called into office and bollocked. Why didn't you turn off the PTU* they asked? I followed the ECAM he said. Oh, but everyone KNOWS that's what you do with loss of fluid to prevent a double hydraulic failure, they said. He stood his ground, said he followed the ECAM**.

*(PTU might be a Boeing term, after so long I can't remember the AB name). It powers either of the two main hydraulic systems from the other main one. With loss of fluid in one system it seizes, causing a loss of hydraulics in both mains. There is an AB mod for it to automatically shut down, but JQ didn't purchase the mod. JQ ALSO did not amend their documentation so that pilots knew to do this manually. The end result: piss poor SOPs, pilot disciplined. JQ said it was all his fault. This was after he flew an exemplary double-hydraulic failure approach and landing (not trivial in an AB).

**(again, memory fails me. It MIGHT have been in the ECAM at the time, but buried way down the list. In AB, the first ECAM following a loss of hydraulics is that the gear won't retract, so they were dealing with that ECAM first (as per AB procedures), and the loss of hydraulics is later in the ECAM list, and possibly somewhere in there is the instruction to turn off the PTU***) ***or whatever the damn thing is called.

I learnt to not trust JQ SOPs. Nor management.

A while later, Adelaide base closed. Friend of mine there was told on Anzac Day (? or maybe just after) and he had ten days to start work in Darwin. Ten days to cancel his rental contract, lose his bond, find new accommodation, get his wife a new job and find schools for his kids. His description of the "help" given by JQ was astonishing, and too long for here. In the end he got tired of his questions being unanswered (I think he had to get a boat and a dog to Darwin, and wanted to know if that would be reimbursed) so he just billed JQ anyway. He said towards the end the liaison office didn't even bother to answer phone calls or emails.

A while after that, more Ansett pilots came back from the ME and I was told I had to go to Darwin. I said no, seniority meant blah blah. I was told how that wasn't fair to the Ansett pilots because they needed to back in Melbourne and told a sob story of how hard their life was. Basically I was told to shove it, I would not get the aircraft type I wanted (in seniority), the base I wanted (in seniority) nor the C+T upgrade I was trying for (based mainly on previous Boeing experience).

Put on a four sector flight. First sector a C+T in the right seat (not my check, they were short of FOs). We got a manual loadsheet. He had no idea how to check it, I had to teach him. We got airborne. He had no idea about ETOPs. Got to ToD and told to cross waypoint X at time blah. He couldn't figure that out either. In conversation he told me he joined in 1989, was originally a low hour bush pilot and if it wasn't for what went on then he'd never have gotten his career. I don't hold his choice against him, but he was clearly still a marginal pilot now, twenty years later. Obviously coasting. This was a C+T and I was being told I couldn't get that because Ansett pilots deserved it better.

[color=#3333ff]Second sector: new FO. Had flown with this FO in the sim four weeks prior. He failed the sim - not by a little bit, but by a lot. He was well below standard. Sim instructor after much hemming and hawing said he would give a "conditional pass" (whatever that means) and would schedule the FO for some extra sim sessions to "catch up". So I asked the FO about the extra sim sessions. He never got them, nothing. I flew the entire way thinking that if anything happened I would be single pilot ops.[/color]

Landed. Spoke to a friend in the ME. Resigned from JQ. Had no job to go to at the time. Never regretted it, never looked back.

Got a nice letter from the Chief Pilot asking me why. I never replied to him but I should have, and I should've told him the above story. I had no rancour or bitterness, it was just that I didn't want to be part of a company that treated people this way, and had such a poor standard of C+T. I wish I'd been braver about standing up to regs being breached, but I know I would have risked my career and nothing would have changed. The CP wasn't bad, but he clearly couldn't change things. IIRC he left a little after me.

I fly in China now. Aircraft are better maintained, never a single thing wrong with them. All ops according to the manual. Any time I've seen a (very slight) deviation, all I have to do is pull out the FM or the MEL, and there is no problem. Everything is standard. Compared to JQ, it's a dream job, very easy to fly. No special procedures, nothing non-standard.

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Just heard there was another King Air accident at YMEN in the last 10-15 minutes.....stand by..

EDIT: It was an undercarriage collapse. All got out OK.

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Story with video here

Passengers scramble to safety after plane makes rough landing at airport

A plane has made a dramatic emergency landing after running into trouble above Essendon Fields in Melbourne this afternoon.

Emergency services responded to the runway about 6pm after reports the landing gear of the plane was not working.

The pilot was forced to burn off fuel for more than 15 minutes, according to the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB)

The 9NEWS chopper camera captured the aircraft hitting the runway with force, with smoke seen coming from the wheels as it came to a stop.

All five people onboard were shown running from the door of the plane, with two girls hugging on the tarmac.

No one was injured in the incident.

More to come.

[Cap'n Wannabe]

From Oz Aviation..

Air Show Approvals under Scrutiny after Mallard Crash

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is looking closely at air show approvals following the fatal crash of a Grumman Mallard into the Swan River in Perth earlier this year.

Mallard VH-CQA was part of an air display on 26 January when it stalled mid turn and crashed into the water, killing both occupants.

In an update to the investigation issued last week, the ATSB said they could find no sign of pilot incapacity or defect in the aircraft that would account for the crash.

"The investigation has not identified any evidence to indicate that pilot incapacitation or aircraft serviceability were contributing factors to the collision with water," the ATSB stated in the update.

"Further analysis around the aircraft performance and operational factors, as well as the review of the planning, approval and oversight of the air display is ongoing."

During the investigation ATSB has examined the sequence of events leading up to the occurrence, aspects of the air display coordination, as well as the regulations, procedures and guidance relating to CASA-approved air displays, including:

- approval process for the Perth Australia Day Sky Show going back several years and for other air display events across Australia

- air displays applications from this and other events

- CASA's Air Display Safety and Administrative Arrangements manual in use at the time and the revised version published earlier this month

- surveillance and oversight of air displays as a whole

The ATSB has also examined the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch report into the crash of Hawker Hunter G-BXFI at Shoreham in August 2015, which killed 11 bystanders.

The ATSB investigation is currently ongoing.

[Kharon]

Shamelessly cribbed from Pprune.

Posted by Centaurus (legend).

________________________________________
Just came across this link. At last; Aviation Safety Digests are available in digital form. Thanks to someone special who has done the hard yards to complete this wonderful achievement. Fill your boots  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9wo9qzdor...0LzdqhYva?dl=0


Show your support and appreciation, download and enjoy some real, down to earth, first class reporting and commentary on aviation ‘events’, incidents and accidents from folk who actually had a clue (or two).  Not certain to whom our thanks must be directed, but to whoever you are.

THANK YOU.

[ventus45]

The full link is: Aviation Safety Digests - in digital form - by Centaurus (legend)

(https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9wo9qzdor57lf...qhYva?dl=0)

Bloody brilliant - and bloody well done - and as "K" says:

THANK YOU VERY MUCHLY !

WARNING:
The entire download is 1.65 giga bytes.
It s a huge goldmine of priceless information.
A "must" - well worth the effort and bandwidth to download it.

[P7_TOM]

"K" said -

C'est la poêle qui se moque du chaudron.

I’m not going to write a whole heap of comment here – I’m not; including the speed of taxi. One pilot at least can be only be grateful that the developers had not built a DFO close in. We may however ask one simple question, who the hell taught this guy to fly multi engine aircraft?

You do see why Mr. PB’s post (above) is so very important; don’t you?

Toot – Shriek- toot

[Cap'n Wannabe]

"K" said -

C'est la poêle qui se moque du chaudron.

I’m not going to write a whole heap of comment here – I’m not; including the speed of taxi. One pilot at least can be only be grateful that the developers had not built a DFO close in. We may however ask one simple question, who the hell taught this guy to fly multi engine aircraft?

You do see why Mr. PB’s post (above) is so very important; don’t you?

Toot – Shriek- toot

Having watched the video a few times now, I'm wondering if the initial footage hasn't been sped up....? It certainly looks that way to me on the first part of the takeoff roll..
Could be wrong, of course!

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Full story here..

Two dead in plane crash in Darwin rural area at Howard Springs

EMERGENCY services have confirmed two people have died in a plane crash in Darwin’s rural area.

The Air Frontier single-engine aircraft, a Cessna 210, was leaving Darwin Airport enroute to Elcho Island when it crashed.

It’s understood it had just taken off.

The wings have separated from the body of the aircraft. The wreck is located on Gunn Point Rd, Howard Springs.

Police have identified the bodies and are working on contacting next of kin before providing further details.

Air Frontier is one of the Territory’s largest aircraft charter companies operating throughout Australia’s Top End and Arnhem Land.

A spokesman from Air Frontier said the company was not making a statement at this time.

[P7_TOM]

A little more information - FWIW and some pictures.



NT News and the

ABC

[Peetwo]

Update: Via the ABC News:

Family of young pilot killed in Darwin plane crash 'absolutely heartbroken'
By Dijana Damjanovic and Neda Vanovac

Updated yesterday at 9:05pmTue 24 Oct 2017, 9:05pm

Video: Fatal plane crash near Darwin (ABC News)
 :00
The family of a young pilot killed in a light plane crash on the outskirts of Darwin yesterday has spoken about the "emptiness" they feel about losing him.

Philip McCarter said his son Darcy, 23, was working as a pilot in the Top End and was on board with a second pilot, aged 33 and also from Queensland, when the Cessna 210 crashed shortly after taking off from Darwin on Monday afternoon.


Photo: The family of pilot Darcy McCarter have spoken of their heartbreak following his death.

"Many of you will already know, but we lost out beautiful boy Darcy yesterday," Mr McCarter said.

"He was flying out of Darwin to Elcho Island, where he was based as a pilot serving the local community.

"As you can imagine we are all absolutely heartbroken and cannot believe this has happened. We have lost our darling boy and brother to Ella. We can't imagine our lives without him and love him with all our hearts.

"We love you. I am empty."

The plane was also carrying the body of a deceased Yolngu man, who the ABC understands was being taken back to Elcho Island, off the coast of East Arnhem Land, for a traditional funeral.

Aboriginal model Magnolia Maymuru also paid tribute to Mr McCarter on Tuesday.

"This pilot has flown my family and I multiple times from Gove to Elcho and has always worked with a good heart and always respectful towards a lot of Yolngu people from West and East of Arnhem Land," she posted on Facebook.

"Please pray for his family."

Photo: The Cessna 210 in 2009 at Parafield Airport in South Australia. (Supplied: George Canciani)

There was an outpouring of grief and support on Mr McCarter's Facebook page in memory of his son.

"[As] one of the many pilots who operate in the NT out of Darwin, I pass on our sincere condolences. Every day these young pilots fly countless hours in the hope to one day be in the left-hand seat with an airline or similar," wrote Duncan Terry.

"We were devastated to hear of incident and loss of Darcy."

Chris van Elsen remembered Darcy as "an impressive young guy who always seemed to have a smile on his face and he made a point of saying hello every time he saw you", while Clare Dal Bon said he had "the kindest heart and his happiness was infectious".

'We desperately want to know what happened'

Photo: Members of the community have started to lay flowers at the crash scene. (ABC News: Nancy Notzon)

Air Frontier owner Geoff Hunt said everyone connected with the business was "absolutely shocked by this tragedy" and that with the loss of "two highly regarded colleagues", aero operations had been immediately suspended.

"We are deeply saddened by yesterday's tragic event, with the loss of two precious lives," he said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

"Everyone connected with Air Frontier is absolutely devastated by what has happened and our hearts and love go to the families of our two pilots."

He said Air Frontier had been in contact with the families to offered them support.

"They were experienced, professional pilots and delightful young men I am proud to call colleagues," he said.

"The aircraft was carrying the remains of a respected Yolngu man to his ancestral burial place. We express our deepest apologies and heartfelt sympathies to the man's relatives for the additional grief this has created."

Photo: The wing of the crashed Cessna 210 is visible through trees alongside Gunn Point Road. (ABC News: Ian Redfearn)

Air Frontier was doing everything it could to assist the multiple investigations underway, Mr Hunt said.

"These investigations will take some time to provide the answers to what occurred and we will do everything possible to obtain those answers," he said.

"We know this will not ease the loss but we desperately want to know what happened to our colleagues and the aircraft involved."

He apologised to passengers and customers for any inconvenience that the suspension of operations caused, but said that "in light of what happened it was the only decision we could take".

Pending confirmation from Air Frontier's pilots that they are fit and able to resume flying, he said it planned to resume flights on Thursday.

Investigators at scene for rest of week

Photo: Police at the scene of the fatal plane crash in the Northern Territory. (ABC News: Ian Redfearn)

The Cessna 210, operated by local charter company Air Frontier, took off at 1:30pm and crashed shortly afterwards near Howard Springs, about 25 kilometres south of Darwin's CBD.

NT Police will conduct an investigation on behalf of the coroner, and investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) have flown from Canberra to Darwin.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators are expected to be on site for at least the rest of this week and at this stage they are not aware of any adverse circumstances.

"We will take the information to try and find out what happened and then try and find ways to reduce the risk of something like this happening again," ATSB representative Nat Nagy said.

"We understand that police are speaking to a number of witnesses already."

Lighter aircraft like the Cessna 210 are not required to have black boxes or flight recorders on board.

The ATSB is looking to see if it can use GPS data or other electronic information to piece together the plane's final moments before the crash.

"We have specialist engineers who are able to gather data from those to try and work out exactly what happened," Mr Nagy said.

A preliminary factual report is expected to be published in around 30 days and it will take 12 months to fully analyse data and bring in recommendations.

Also via the ABC, another C210 fatal accident in SW WA:

Pilot dead near Albany after plane crashes in dense, inaccessible bushland
By Nicolas Perpitch

Updated yesterday at 8:42pm Tue 24 Oct 2017, 8:42pm


Photo: Police are working to access the crash site in a national park. (ABC News: Ben Gubana)

A man has died after a light plane crashed in a national park near Albany on Western Australia's south coast.

WA Police Superintendent Dom Wood said the Cessna 210 aircraft had gone down in dense bushland in the Mount Lindesay National Park, in an area locally known as the Sheepwash Nature Reserve.

The pilot who died is a 41-year-old Albany local who owned the plane.

"The difficulty is from the ground getting to the scene because it is quite a dense area of bush," he told ABC Great Southern this afternoon.

"There is still smoke, potentially fire risk as well."

He said he rescuers had to walk several kilometres from the closest road to the scene.

Photo: The rough area of the suspected crash site in Mount Lindesay National Park. (Google Maps)

Witnesses heard an explosion

A local dairy farmer who spoke to the ABC said he called in the suspected crash after a worker on his farm saw what he thought was a light plane go down in nearby forest.
The farmer, Pieter Mostert, who is also the fire control officer for the Redmond fire brigade, said he heard a plane go over his property on the outskirts of Redmond, about 400 kilometres south-east of Perth, about 11:00am.

One of his workers saw it go into the north-east corner of Mount Lindesay National Park, he said.

"My wife heard the explosion from up [at] the house, which is 700 metres up from the dairy," he said.

"My co-worker had full sight of it."

Mr Mostert said the terrain where the plane is thought to have gone down was steep and heavily forested.

"I believe they may be hampered with the access to get into the site, and it also could be difficult because [of] the communications in our area," he said.

RIP -

[P7_TOM]

Busy time for the Hi-Viz crew.- I make it five more serious recent events:-

2x C210.
1x Be20.
2x C310.

I wonder, is it worth looking a little deeper than ‘normal’. It has been a bad year for serious accidents, perhaps the seeds sown in previous years are beginning to bear fruit. Who knows, but neither the ATSB’s fatuous reports or CASA’s ridiculous rule sets seem to have cured the body count. Are we still the ‘safest’ in the world?

Time for re-think – I think.

[Peetwo]

CASA's wx reporting conundrums -  

By the Klanman, via the Oz:

Weather report ban link to crash

12:00amANTHONY KLAN
Restrictions on weather information to incoming flights on Lord Howe has been linked to an ­accident.

---

Weather report restriction linked to Lord Howe air crash

An intervention by the aviation safety regulator restricting a veteran harbour master from providing crucial weather information to incoming flights at Lord Howe Island has been linked to a serious ­accident.

Clive Wilson has intricate knowledge of the treacherous weather patterns and cross winds on the remote island and for decades radioed this knowledge to incoming flights. His volunteer work was encouraged by airlines, the RAAF and air ambulance services.

But three years ago the Civil Aviation Safety Authority told Mr Wilson, who had been manning the radio since 1956, it would not renew his licence to provide detailed weather observations to pilots unless he spent $20,000 on a meteorological training course.

On Friday morning last week a 13-seater twin-turboprop King Air 200 carrying five people was seriously damaged when it ploughed into the tarmac, ­destroying a propeller and damaging a wing, in an accident so ­serious experts said the plane would most likely have to be ­returned to the mainland by ship to be repaired.

The previous evening, in similar weather, a medical evacuation flight radioed Mr Wilson for ­advice and was told it was too dangerous to land.

It circled for more than an hour before returning to the mainland.

Unlike air force and medevac pilots, many flight operators — including Port Macquarie-based Eastern Air Services, which had been flying the King Air commercially into Lord Howe since ­December — no longer radio Mr Wilson for advice on conditions on the ground.

Mr Wilson said this was in part because many pilots were no longer aware he provided the service — his name and contact ­details were removed from the ­region’s pilot guide at the insistence of the Lord Howe Island airport administration amid the spat with CASA.

“That morning (of the accident) the wind was gusting up to 50 knots and my respectful advice would have been abandon what you are doing and go home,” Mr Wilson told The Weekend Australian yesterday.

“My normal conversation in those circumstances would have been ‘the conditions are difficult and unpredictable and there is a high-level of risk in attempting to approach Lord Howe under these conditions’.”

Former Qantas pilot Bill Hamilton said the action by CASA was a “textbook case of mindless bureaucracy trumping common sense” and it was “putting lives at risk”.

“Almost all of the rest of the world would see Clive’s efforts as essential but we’re a country where compliance with ratbag regulations take precedence over commonsense,” Mr Hamilton said.

An Australian Transport ­Safety Bureau spokesman confirmed a King Air 200 turboprop aircraft had lost control and had been involved in an accident on Lord Howe Island at 7.20am on October 27.

“During final approach, the aircraft encountered a strong downdraft, resulting in a hard landing with substantial damage to the right wing and propeller,” the spokesman said.

“The ATSB reviewed the incident and is not investigating.”

There were five people on board, none of whom was injured.

A CASA spokesman said the regulator would not investigate as it usually only reviewed accidents that were more serious — where injuries or deaths had occurred as a result of systemic mechanical or other problems.

Eastern Air Services did not return calls yesterday.

On its website the company was advertising seven-day holiday packages from Port Macquarie to Lord Howe Island — aboard the King Air 200 — ­between October and December from $1199 twin-share.

---

& comment from Sandy:

“Graham I don’t think they would want a posting to the Island, much more cosy right where they are in their 7.5 hour working days, RDOs, generous super and regular wintertime seminars in Far North QLD (or OS). It’s just great! So easy right where they are now.

For example they’ve broken all records for the longest running make work program in the bureaucratic history of Can’tberra, would you believe 30 years to rewrite the aviation rules and still not finished! What a joke, except the latest tranche of new rules are a “mess” (quote CASA Chairman Boyd). A mess that’s devasted General Aviation. with the loss of thousands of jobs.

By the way Graham the Civil Aviation Safety Authority are not “Department”, they are an independent statutory Commonwealth body doing willy nilly whatever takes their fancy with our money! Every now and then they write a Statement of Expectations for the Minister to sign. Yes, that’s it! The CEO is on $600,000, what a bonanza.

As regards the Transport Safety Bureau it would seem that nowadays they just wait for people to be seriously injured or killed before investigating!

Your taxes at work; of course the ATSB wouldn’t want to say something adverse about their former work buddies in the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

Recently the only telling oversight of CASA and ATSB is from the Senate Estimates Transport Committee;  for what many in the GA industry see as highly inappropriate collusion, watch that space ... Alex in the Rises. “

Hmm...I note even the 'Klan man' seems to understand the difference between wx (actual) reports and forecasts (TAFOR)...

Meanwhile CASA are more concerned about CYA and liability before aviation safety - UDB!  


MTF...P2  

[Peetwo]

Tragedy at Hobart Airport -

Via ABC News online:

One dead, one injured in helicopter crash at Hobart airport, flights cancelled
Tue 7 Nov 2017, 7:04pm



Photo: Emergency crews attend the scene of a helicopter crash at Hobart Airport. (ABC News: Edith Bevin)

One person has died and another has been critically injured in a helicopter crash at Hobart airport.

A witness has told police he saw a helicopter come "down hard" on grass about 5 metres from the runway.

It is unclear if it was taking off or landing.

In a statement, Tasmania Police said emergency services were responding to the "serious crash" at the airport's Cambridge site, north-east of Hobart.

"It is understood this incident is impacting on airport operations, including commercial flights," police said.

Jetstar passengers have been told there will likely be no more flights out of Hobart this evening.

Passengers onboard a Qantas Link flight which was turned back before take-off reported seeing ambulances on the runway.

Fire trucks and ambulances are on the scene.

ABC employee Anne Cordiner, who is at the airport, said "there were a couple of hundred people" waiting in the departure terminal.

"People are pretty calm. We've just been told that our Jetstar flight that was due to leave for Melbourne at six o'clock has been cancelled and we've been asked to go through the check-in desk and rebook on other flights," she said.

Police will hold a media conference in about an hour.

& from the Hobart Mercury, via the Oz:

Helicopter crashes at Hobart Airport

A helicopter crash at Hobart Airport is affecting operations.

• Matthew Denholm
  
• The Australian
  
• 7:04PM November 7, 2017
  

[img=0x0]https://i1.wp.com/pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/author/5f91ca65ef3233adc982dc00ae6da579/?esi=true&t_product=the-australian&t_template=s3/austemp-article_common/vertical/author/widget&td_bio=false[/img]
A helicopter crash at Hobart Airport involving two people has been described as “serious”, with debris on the runway and flights thrown into chaos.

It is understood one person is dead and another critically injured.

“Police and emergency services are responding to a serious helicopter crash at Hobart Airport with two people involved,” a police statement said a short time ago.

“It is understood this incident is impacting on airport operations, including commercial flights.”

Passengers at the airport have been told that flights in and out of the city had been suspended and reported seeing fire trucks and ambulances on the runway.

“It must be pretty bad, I’m looking at some of the staff and they are crying — it is not nice,” Scott McGinley, a passenger waiting for a flight, told The Mercury newspaper. Passengers at the airport, east of Hobart, said the crash appeared to be about 500 metres from the terminal.

Helicopter Crash at Hobart Airport. Picture: Luke bowden

The cause of the crash is unknown. There has been recent controversy over Hobart’s airspace management.

Australia’s air safety regulator last year decided against any major change to Hobart’s air space, prompting claims it was courting tragedy and continuing a cover-up over Tasmania’s bungled $6 million radar system.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority in August last year released the findings of a review of Hobart’s airspace, ordered after a series of stories in The Australian about failures in the state’s radar system, known as TASWAM.

The Australian in 2015 revealed TASWAM was not being used to control aircraft to the ground; only as an addition tool for local tower controllers providing “procedural separation”, which relies on visual observation and communication with pilots.

This newspaper also revealed that failures in TASWAM — including planes disappearing from radar screens for minutes on end — were occurring almost monthly and that air traffic controllers had described the system as “unreliable”.

CASA responded to the criticism, and a projected 30% to 40% increase in passengers into Hobart over the next five years due to a tourism boom, by ordering an Office of Airspace Regulation review of Hobart airspace.

However, the report released last year rejected calls by pilots and Airlines of Tasmania for TASWAM to be used as they believed it was intended: to guide aircraft to the runway, rather than to only 8,500 ft as occurs currently.

Instead, the report recommended continuing with local air tower controllers using procedural separation below 8,500 feet, describing this as “appropriate”.

This was despite the report noting 16.6 per cent growth in aircraft movements at Hobart Airport between 2012 and 2015, and an 86 per cent increase at the adjacent Cambridge Airport in the six years to 2015. The Hobart tower handles both airports.

The report did recommend continued redesign of flight routes in and out of Hobart and did occur.

MTF...P2

[Peetwo]

Update to Hobart tragedy.

Via the ABC online news:

Hobart Airport crash: ATSB examining RotorLift helicopter incident which killed Roger Corbin


Updated 25 minutes ago Wed 8 Nov 2017, 6:54pm
Photo: Emergency personnel near the wreckage of the RotorLift helicopter at Hobart Airport. (Supplied: Luke Bowden/The Mercury)

A 33-year-old pilot remains in a serious but stable condition at Royal Hobart Hospital as aviation authorities continue to investigate a helicopter crash at Hobart Airport that killed flight instructor Roger Corbin.


Photo: Roger Corbin had more than 35 years' experience in the aviation industry. (Supplied: RotorLift)

The airport resumed normal operations this morning following the crash yesterday afternoon near the runway.

Roger Paul Corbin, a 57-year-old flight instructor and owner of RotorLift Aviation, was killed and a male pilot was seriously injured.

The AS350BA Squirrel helicopter VH-BAA was on a training flight when it nosedived into the ground shortly before 5:30pm.

Inspector Natasha Freeman said it remains unclear which of the men was flying the aircraft.

"The circumstances surrounding the crash are being investigated, and at this point it is not possible to say who was in control of the dual control aircraft at the time," she said.



Photo: RotorLift helicopters were used for civilian, corporate and government purposes. (Facebook: RotorLift Aviation)

Inspector John Ward said the drop from a height of about 200 metres had a devastating effect.

"It appears to me it's pretty much broken in half, certainly been a write-off. It's come from 200 metres to the ground," he said.

The wreckage of the helicopter, which belongs to charter company RotorLift, has been taken to a secure area.

The crash was witnessed by many people at the terminal and four people, including two ground staff, gave statements.

Hobart Airport was shut down last night after the accident, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of passengers.

Three inbound flights were diverted to Launceston and the passengers bussed to Hobart.

Three outgoing flights were cancelled. Airport operations returned to normal this morning.

The Australian Air Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said it had sent two investigators to probe the cause of the crash:

"The ATSB is investigating the accident involving a AS350BA Squirrel helicopter, registered VH-BAA, that occurred at Hobart Airport, Tasmania on 7 November.
"The helicopter collided with terrain, fatally injuring one of the two persons on board.
"The ATSB deployed a team of two transport safety investigators to the accident site with expertise that includes aircraft operations, engineering and maintenance. While on site, the team will examine the wreckage, gather any recorded data, and interview witnesses."

The ATSB said it would release a preliminary investigation report "in approximately 30 days".

"A final report into the accident may take up to 12 months to complete. However, should a safety issue be identified during the course of the investigation, the ATSB will immediately notify those affected and seek safety action to address the issue."

Video: Crews respond after helicopter crash at Hobart airport (ABC News)

RotorLift at forefront of Tasmanian rescues

RotorLift operates the Tasmania Police Rescue Helicopter and has featured in many of the state's major rescue operations.

The company flies about 160 missions each year using the twin-engine Kawasaki BK117 equipped with medical and emergency equipment, enabling it to fly into almost any area in virtually any conditions, day or night.

Photo: RotorLift Aviation offers training courses and scenic flights out of its Hobart base. (Supplied)

Earlier this year, the rescue helicopter plucked father and son John and Stephen Ward to safety, after they were lost in Tasmania's south-west for three nights in near-freezing temperatures and rain.

The rescue helicopter has a state-of-the-art mobile emergency medical room and can manoeuvre within rugged terrain.

It has been involved in searches for missing bushwalkers and ships, air-lifting injured and ill bushwalkers and people living in remote areas, and for evacuating road accident victims.

RotorLift helicopters have also been used in criminal investigations and operations.
The company also offers pilot training courses in a range of helicopters, including night vision goggle courses for pilots and crews.

It offers other services including low-level photography and filming, fruit drying to avoid water damage to crops, frost protection, firefighting, powerline inspections and mapping.

Inspector Ward said the crash would not affect the police force's capacity to respond to emergencies.

"We always have contingency plans in place for these types of things, whether it's something like this or whether it's an illness, and they will be able to maintain core business, daily business, as usual," he said

MTF...P2

[Peetwo]

Virgin bends yet another ATR -

Not sure how they kept a lid on this but I just happened to notice that the ATSB are investigating another Virgin ATR occurrence that is being categorised as an 'accident':

Aviation safety investigations & reports
Investigation title
Hard landing involving GIE Avions de Transport Regional ATR72, VH-FVZ, Canberra Airport, ACT, on 19 November 2017
 
Investigation number: AO-2017-111
Investigation status: Active
 

• Tab - Summary
  

Summary

The ATSB is investigating a hard landing involving a GIE Avions de Transport Regional ATR72, VH-FVZ, at Canberra Airport, Australian Capital Territory, on 19 November 2017.
During approach to runway 35, the aircraft encountered windshear. The aircraft landed hard, and the tail skid and underside of the rear fuselage contacted the runway. The aircraft sustained substantial damage. There were no reported injuries.

As part of the investigation, the ATSB has inspected the aircraft and obtained the flight data recorders, will interview the flight crew and gather additional information.
A final investigation report will be released following the conclusion of the ATSB’s investigation.

General details

Date: 19 November 2017
 
Investigation status: Active
 
Time: 13:26 ESuT
 
Investigation type: Occurrence Investigation
 
Location   (show map): Canberra Airport
 
Occurrence type: Hard landing
 
State: Australian Capital Territory
 
Occurrence class: Operational
 
Occurrence category: Accident
 
Report status: Pending
 
Highest injury level: None
 
Expected completion: March 2018

Aircraft details

Aircraft manufacturer: ATR-Gie Avions de Transport Régional
 
Aircraft model: ATR72-212A
 
Aircraft registration: VH-FVZ
 
Serial number: 1087
 
Operator: Virgin Australia Airlines
 
Type of operation: Air Transport High Capacity
 
Sector: Turboprop
 
Damage to aircraft: Substantial
 
Departure point: Sydney, NSW

Destination: Canberra, ACT

Under the TSI Act 2003 the ATSB define an accident as:

accident means an investigable matter involving a transport vehicle where:
                     (a)  a person dies or suffers serious injury as a result of an occurrence associated with the operation of the vehicle; or
                     (b)  the vehicle is destroyed or seriously damaged as a result of an occurrence associated with the operation of the vehicle; or
                     ©  any property is destroyed or seriously damaged as a result of an occurrence associated with the operation of the vehicle.

Therefore the fact that this 'accident' was not reported by the MSM would suggest that there was no politican onboard and the pax were way too busy extracting their shorts from their asses while praying to God that they were still alive to bother reporting the incident to the MSM -

MTF? Yeah probably in about 2030 in the ATSB Annual report...P2

[ventus45]

13:26 on a Sunday afternoon ? - no polly's at that time, no jurnos either.

At least this one is on the ATSB's doorstep, you could hardly get closer without a fatal.
Should be able to wrap this one up pronto, (helps the statistics for the Annual Report), and no travel expenses or any other "resources issues" to slow things down.