[Peetwo]

Air Nuigini Flight 73 - Update: Hero criticism & jumpseat vid...  


Via the Oz:

Crash hero pans PNG report’s failure to tackle ‘poor safety culture’



By Ironsider.

An Australian passenger lauded as a “hero” after the Air Niugini crash last year has criticised the final report as failing to address a poor safety culture at the airline.

Former Royal Australian Navy clearance diver Adam Milburn was praised by fellow passengers for playing a major role in evacuating the Boeing 737-800 following the crash into Chuuk Lagoon, northeast of Papua New Guinea, on September 28.

All but one passenger survived the crash, which was attributed to the pilots’ loss of situational awareness, and failure to respond to multiple safety alerts before ploughing the plane into the water, 480m short of the runway at Chuuk International Airport.

After reading the final report released last week by the PNG ­Accident Investigation Commission, Mr Milburn said he was “very disappointed in the actions of both pilots, and the failure to adhere to standard operating procedure … In my view, the captain is ultimately responsible for the safety of the aircraft and he failed in that duty with catastrophic consequences.

“I don’t believe the actions of the pilots were unique to this particular flight. My belief is that the airline didn’t have a robust safety, training and checking culture and as a result unprofessional behaviour by pilots went unaddressed.” Mr Milburn said the report’s reference to the pilots ignoring similar alerts on a previous flight suggested it was only a matter of “when” a crash would occur.

“The airline should be further held to account,” he said.

Air Niugini chief executive Alan Milne said the airline was continuing with an internal investigation into “what was in the ­pilots’ minds and what were the external factors … They’re ­extremely well trained professional pilots with plenty of hours, and they certainly didn’t (crash the plane) on purpose.”

Mr Milne said the days of putting a plane crash down to pilot error were in the past: “If the pilot made a mistake — why did he make a mistake? There are always human factors to consider.”

The two pilots, including one from Australia, remain stood down while the internal investigation continues.

Mr Milburn said it was not just the pilots that were of concern but the cabin crew as well. While the report found crew members followed procedure in evacuating the aircraft, he said that was not his recollection. “I think Air Niugini should be apologising personally to each passenger and the family of the deceased for its failure to provide adequate training and checking of its pilots,” he said.

“As long as Air Niugini is flying into Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns, Australians should be concerned by their poor safety record.”

Disturbing footage from PNG AIC on last moments until the final splash of flight 73...  

&/or

Comments off twitter...  Link: https://twitter.com/BenWhoTravels/status...0943634434

Ben 

Here is a video of a plane crash from the flight deck (Air Niugini Flight 73). Struggle to believe the pilots just wilfully descended through minimums and then ignored multiple G/S and sink rate warnings.

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Captain Mark:

1/ The whole thing (including the accident report) screams a culture of ignoring EGPWS warnings, minimums, monitoring and basic piloting skills as well as normal instrument procedures which even inexperienced pilots would be aware of...

2/ There are so many clues to the developing dangerous situation that are dismissed and so many opportunities to prevent the accident. The complete loss of SA is easily observeable based on the multiple errors made. A totally avoidable accident..

3/ At the very, very least continuing an approach below minimums after visual contact with the runway has been lost is a huge red line crossed..

4/ For all the advantages the EGPWS offers, it gives no protection (no whoop,whoop pull up warning) in a situation like this for an unstable approach in the landing configuration

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Ben

If this is real, my comments would be something along the lines of......this is unlikely the first time this had happened, and like many SOP breakdowns prior to accidents, was probably something that had become normal. Normalisation of deviance

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Adam Aston

Incredible. How many rules, SOPs and just general common sense can we demolish on one approach?

MTF...P2