[Peetwo]

Speaking of overdue & obfuscated I noticed the tender for the black box recovery of VH-NGA has finally been advertised -

Services for recovery of flight recorders from aircraft submerged near Norfolk Island.

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Description

The ATSB requires a Contractor to supply commercial services in order to recover of the Flight Recorders from a submerged Westwind 1124A aircraft that ditched off the coast of Norfolk Island on 18 November 2009. An ROV survey of the wreckage was conducted over the period 27-31 March 2015, which confirmed the location and disposition of the main wreckage fragments.

The wreckage fragments lie on a sandy ocean floor approximately 4km due west of Norfolk Island. The aircraft has remained largely intact since the initial accident with the wings / tail section separated from the passenger compartment. The Flight Recorders are located in the wings / tail fragment of the wreckage. The passenger compartment is located underneath the left wing. It is likely that both main sections are no longer physically connected by any flight control or electrical cables, although this was not confirmed for certain during the ROV survey. The dry weight of the wings / tail section was calculated to be around 5 tonnes. Sand has accumulated around a portion of the rear most section of the aircraft tail.

The ATSB anticipates that a recovery operation of this nature may involve the use of any or all of the following:

• Vessel
  
• Lifting Equipment
  
• Divers
  
• ROVs
  

While the ATSB anticipates that any or all of the above assets may form part of a proposed method for recovery, the ATSB invites Tenderers to propose methods for retrieval that are effective and efficient, representing value for money.  It is not necessary that a method include a particular asset if it is not necessary to achieve the recovery objective.

Once the flight recorders are removed from the aircraft wreckage, the wreckage must be left substantially unchanged in its current location.

Conditions for Participation
As per section 2.1 of the Request For Tender
 
Timeframe for Delivery
Before the end of September 2015

Address for Lodgement
Austender at www.tenders.gov.au, in accordance with instructions in Request documentation.

From the AFR on the above Government tender... :

Salvage for flight recorders at Norfolk Island

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by Christopher Jay

After more than five years submerged on the ocean floor four kilometres due west of Norfolk Island, the two flight recorders from the crash of a Pel-Air Israeli Westwind aircraft on November 18, 2009 are scheduled to be recovered by a salvage contractor for yet another inquiry into the night-time ditching at sea by pilot Dominic James.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has issued a tender for commercial salvage of just the recorders, leaving the rest of the reasonably intact wreckage pieces where they are. An underwater survey by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) from March 27-31 earlier this year showed the aircraft in two main pieces.

In contrast to the problems questing for flight recorders from Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 in the ocean off Western Australia, the exact position of the Pel-Air VH-NGA aircraft flight recorders is pinpointed – on two vertically stacked racks in the tail cone of the aircraft.

Australasian tenders specialist TenderSearch says salvage contractors with access to a vessel, lifting equipment, divers and remotely operated underwater vehicles have until July 7 to put in for the recovery task.

The dry weight of the wings and tail section are calculated at around five tonnes, with some sand banked up around the rearmost portion.

The flight recorders were originally left where they were by Australian civil aviation authorities on the grounds that there were no particular issues about the operational performance of the Pel-Air aircraft itself.

This functioned normally with engines running and flight performance fine while the two pilots attempted four night-time landings in rain squalls with no runway lights or radar on Norfolk Island, and then flew south for a technically well-executed night-time ocean ditching with fuel still available and engines on.

Deteriorating weather

The investigations at the time centred on weather reporting, with suggestions that the pilots were inadequately informed about deteriorating weather conditions at the Norfolk Island airport, and consideration of flight plans, possible diversion to Fiji or Noumea and quantities of fuel loaded.

The events of the air disaster have remained controversial, with legal action over eligibility for compensation for post traumatic stress disorder (resolved in the affirmative in the NSW Supreme Court a month ago on May 15) and a review by the Canadians, for the Australian government, of the initial local investigations.

Finally, at the end of last year, the Australian government announced that it was going to re-run the whole inquiry process. This time this would include raising the orange-coloured flight recorders to make sure all bases were covered, even though it is arguable whether this will actually disclose much that is not already known.

Norfolk Island is an external Australian Commonwealth Territorial island (eight kilometres by four kilometres) jutting up from the Tasman Sea located 1670 kilometres east north east of Sydney.

The largest aircraft visiting is an Airbus A320.

With no deep water harbour, there are limited opportunities to move personnel by boat. There are two piers, one at Kingston and another at Cascade where a crane can be used to move goods.

Local knowledge is generally required to successfully navigate the shallow-water reef that surrounds the piers.

The water depth at the recovery area was measured by vessel-mounted sonar at 48.3 metres just after high tide on February 24, 2015.

Like it or lump it but the ATSB MH370 SIO deep search; & the PelAir cover-up re-investigation will forever be intrinsically linked in the eyes of many. As @oceankoto alludes it is a wonder the ATSB is not 'Aquaphobic'--- ---  "..Lol! Aquaphobic people in ATSB. No luck.."

MTF...P2