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Pup_Spence dodges a legal hand grenade with Firefighter widow court case?? -   

Via the Oz: 

Firefighter’s widow settles CASA litigation



The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has narrowly escaped the public scrutiny of a Supreme Court showdown after reaching an 11th-hour settlement with the widow of a pilot killed while fighting bushfires near Ulladulla almost a decade ago.

After six years of costly litigation, stress and sleepless nights, Julie Black has accepted a confidential settlement from CASA and other parties just days before their NSW Supreme Court trial was due to begin.

David Black had been water-bombing on the NSW south coast for the Rural Fire Service in October 2013 when the left wing tore off his modified PZL Mielec M-18 Dromader, sending it plummeting to an “unsurvivable impact”.

The 43-year-old left behind his wife and their three young children.

He was also the director and chief pilot of the couple’s aerial crop spraying business, Rebel Ag, in Trangie.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau later revealed that Beal Aircraft Maintenance and Aviation NDT had inspected the aircraft’s wings 11 weeks before the crash using an incorrect technique called the eddy current method which was not approved by CASA.

A Coronial Inquest also found that the inspection, maintenance and testing procedures used on the aircraft were “inadequate” and failed to detect both corrosion pitting and a fatigue crack in the left wing’s lower attachment fitting.



After the inquest, Ms Black launched civil action against CASA, Beal Aircraft Maintenance, engineer Bruce Beal, Aviation NDT, Australian NDT Services, and NDT technicians Travis Tuck and Neil Joiner.

In a statement of claim filed in the NSW Supreme Court, Ms Black accused the parties of – among other things – breach of statutory duty, breach of duty and negligence.

The 48-year-old sought relief in the form of damages, compensation and costs on behalf of herself and her children who suffered injury, loss and damage.

In the court documents Ms Black states CASA failed to comply with its statutory duties and breached its duty of care. CASA should have conducted regular surveillance and audits of Aviation NDT, Australian NDT Services and Beal Aircraft Maintenance to ensure they were performing inspections in a correct and compliant manner, according to the documents.

In their defence pleadings, CASA denied many of the allegations, saying it “did not owe a duty to David Black as alleged … or at all”.

“Neither the accident, nor the deceased‘s death on 24 October 2013, was foreseeable,” CASA countered.

“At all material times CASA exercised reasonable care in the performance of its statutory functions and the exercise of its statutory powers.”



CASA also claimed the exercise of its functions was “limited by the financial and other resources that are reasonably available to CASA”.

“CASA relied upon the skill, experience and expertise of second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh defendants to undertake aircraft maintenance, assessment and inspection work in accordance with all applicable maintenance, assessment and inspection guidelines, manuals and directives, including and not limited to the CASA AD, as in force over the period of the operation of the Aircraft,” the pleadings said.

CASA denied it owed “any of the duties alleged” and rejected that the plaintiffs were “entitled to any damages for losses as alleged”, countering that any damages or losses “were caused or contributed to by the negligence of David Black”.

They accused the aircraft owner and operator of failing to comply with various sections of the Civil Aviation Act and regulations related to handling, maintaining and operating the aircraft.

The Australian was not granted access to, or provided with, the defence pleadings of the other defendants.

After multiple failed mediation attempts, the case was set down for a trial starting Monday but on April 21 Justice Michael Walton approved the secret settlement.

When contacted at the weekend Ms Black said she was relieved her legal battle was over but called it a “bittersweet” victory.

“I am certainly relieved this chapter is now over,” she said.

While you've got the taxpayer and industry funded cheque book out...  : GlenB embuggerance update: 16/05/23 

Also: Pup_Spence and the CASA Board signal duplicity and favoritism is alive and well inside the halls of Fort Fumble in the case of the Croc Wrangler...

CASA gave Matt Wright exemption before Chris Wilson’s fatal chopper crash



The Civil Aviation Safety Authority granted Netflix star Matt Wright and two of his mates ­exemptions that allowed them to collect crocodile eggs with someone hanging from their helicopters – after its chief executive and board members received a private demonstration – just months before the fatal chopper crash that killed Chris Wilson.

New flight operations rules, ­effective from December 2021, stipulated that only turbine-­engine-powered helicopters were permitted to carry a person externally for sling operations.

Despite this, in September 2021, CASA granted Wright and pilot Michael Burbidge an exemption allowing them to continue carrying crocodile-egg collectors beneath their piston-engine-powered Robinson R44 aircraft for ­another three years.

In February last year Wilson – who starred on Outback Wrangler and Wild Croc Territory – was killed when the Robinson R44 Raven II he was slung beneath crashed in a remote part of West Arnhem Land during an egg-collecting mission. Pilot Sebastian Robinson was critically injured.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s preliminary ­report revealed the chopper’s ­engine had stopped before the helicopter hit the ground.

The destroyed chopper was owned and operated by Wright’s company Helibrook and contracted to Mick Burns’ company Wildlife Harvesting NT.

Shortly before the exemptions were granted, Mr Burns and Wright met CASA chief executive Pip Spence and board members Tony Matthews, Michael Bridge and Elizabeth Hallett in Darwin.

The CASA executives had travelled to the Territory in June 2021 for a safety forum, regular board meeting and industry ­engagement events. CASA said it fully-funded its employees’ travel.

While in Darwin, Ms Spence, also director of aviation safety, and her three board members visited Mr Burns’ business Crocodile Farms NT where they were briefed on its operations and how the looming new flight rules would affect its ability to collect crocodile eggs.



Celebrity croc-wrangler Wright then took the CASA CEO and Board members for a flight on one of his Bell choppers to see the scale of the company’s operations and the remote environment in which egg collection is undertaken.

The following month, CASA granted another of Burns’ companies, Porosus, a Supplemental Type Certificate allowing it to use dual cargo hooks for human external cargo operations on Robinson R44 and R44 Raven II helicopters for the purpose of crocodile-egg collecting.

A couple of months after that, CASA granted Helibrook and Mr Burbidge’s company, Northshore Holdings NT, an exemption ­allowing them to collect crocodile eggs via a sling person.

The authorisation was subject to many conditions, which included fitment of dual external cargo hooks under the certificate issued to Burns.

Among its 33 conditions, the sling person must carry a “readily ­accessible harness knife capable of cutting the lifting strop or harness in an emergency”. Also that the sling person “must be made aware, in writing, that the hook system is not certified for human use”.

CASA this week confirmed that Robinson R44 aircraft “can no longer be used for this kind of operation” under Civil Aviation Safety Regulations.

“Transitional arrangements vary between operators based on when an approval was granted but the longest an approval could be used is up to two years after it was made,” a spokesperson said.

While the exemptions granted to Wright and Burbidge in September 2021 state they will not be ­repealed until September 2024, CASA told The Australian their exemptions will cease after two years.

Since Wilson’s death, NT WorkSafe has prohibted the practice of collecting crocodile eggs from the wild by transporting workers suspended from a helicopter via a sling.

CASA board member Mr Bridge also sits on the Northern Territory Tourism board of commissioners alongside Mr Burns.

Tourism NT said it had no knowledge of, or involvement in, CASA’s visit. Wright declined to comment and Mr Burns, who is a­ ­director of Crocosaurus Cove and owns the Darwin Crocodile Farm that houses about 70,000 salt­water crocodiles, did not respond to requests for comment.

TICK..TOCK Pup_Spence, TICK..TOCK INDEED!   

MTF...P2