[Peetwo]

Ben Sandilands getting up a head of steam -

Following on closely from the PT Cobham BAE-146 blog piece & the 50 odd comments that followed, Ben Sandilands has yet another 'serious' Jetstar incident to sink his teeth into to again highlight the appalling duplicity & selective bias by the inept, seemingly captured big "R" regulator CASA.

This ATSB investigation will also be interesting in that it could be regarded as the first real test for the soon to be Chief Commissioner Hoody to insure a totally non-PC'd final report is produced, warts & all.       

For background here is a rehash of the 'other' Jetstar incidents that were also covered by AP & PT...  

AAI in a parallel universe - Will Aviation Safety again be the victim of Bureaucratic obfuscation & Political expediency..

Two serious Jetstar incidents under ATSB investigation


Ben Sandilands | Dec 04, 2015 8:27AM |

A Jetstar A321, a jet so badly loaded at Melbourne in October it struggled to get airborne

From the 'Closing the safety loop' thread & yesterday's ABC radio 'World Today' program:

WILL OCKENDEN: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) isn't the only one looking into this matter.

The aviation regulator, that's the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, or CASA has taken the unusual step of running its own investigation in parallel to the ATSB.

Peter Gibson is from CASA.

PETER GIBSON: We, of course, as the regulator, as the safety regulator need to look at immediate safety issues, be satisfied that they've been dealt with, that the causal factors have been understood by the airline and that the airline has taken the appropriate actions.

So that's why you've got two parallel investigations.

WILL OCKENDEN: What could be the outcome of a CASA investigation?

PETER GIBSON: Well, we're making sure most importantly that Jetstar is putting in place changes that will ensure these sorts of mistakes aren't made again.

Vivid memories of the last high profile 'parallel' investigation and we all know how that turned out -

Wonder if the operator will voluntarily ground all A320 operations until all the safety issues are effectively risk mitigated to the satisfaction of the regulator? - Yeah right & Elephants can fly  (see pic above)

[/url]  
Continued from ABC World Today program:

BEN SANDILANDS: These are really serious investigations.

WILL OCKENDEN: That's Ben Sandilands, an aviation writer and commentator for the crikey.com.au blog, Plane Talking.

He says the other incident, 10 days later on the 29th October, was far more serious.

BEN SANDILANDS: A Jetstar flight to Perth actually really struggled to take off from Melbourne airport at all. It was very nose heavy, clearly had gone too far down the runway to stop and that could have been a very serious incident.

WILL OCKENDEN: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says it's investigating both incidents to find out how the so-called "aircraft loading event" occurred.

It's classified the incidents as "serious".

Ben Sandilands agrees.

BEN SANDILANDS: They moved people around on the flight so that they could land in the proper configuration in Perth. On the other incident, which was a Brisbane to Melbourne flight, they were out by more than, well, almost two tonnes in the weights and balances on the aircraft and so they had to adjust their landing calculations for Melbourne.

WILL OCKENDEN: They're supposed to do this before they take off. Is there any indication why those checks weren't done?

BEN SANDILANDS: None whatsoever. What is extraordinary and I've been talking to a number of pilots this morning who just cannot believe that something that is fundamental to a small tier country airline service could be messed up so badly by a scheduled airline.

It is beyond belief that an airline in Australia would push back and begin a flight without actually knowing how many people were really on board and indeed the other elements of the calculations as to where they were seated.

That's fundamental. That is the sort of stuff that airlines stopped making a mess of back in the 1950s and 1940s.

Ben Sandilands again with a follow up article:

Comment: Why action should be taken against Jetstar

Ben Sandilands | Dec 04, 2015 5:48PM |

A Jetstar A320, does the airline really give a damn about your safety?

The incidents involving missing loading data and an out of balance takeoff by Jetstar are evidence that the airline and its safety regulator CASA cannot be trusted to ensure passenger safety.

Jetstar [url=http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2015/12/04/two-serious-jetstar-incidents-under-atsb-investigation/]twice dispatched jets in a compromised safety state from different Australian airports within 10 days in October.

Its actions in relation to the second incident posed a major threat to the life of all on board the A321, which was configured with more than 215 seats.

At the very least CASA should do what it did during the rehabilitation of Tiger Airways, and restrict the number of sectors it can fly for however many months it takes for the airline to demonstrate 100 percent compliance with the safety regulations it clearly held in such contempt in these incidents.

There is something seriously wrong with the safety culture of the Qantas low cost subsidiary, and its often repeated claims that ‘safety is its No 1 priority’ is a lie, since if that was the case it would never attempt to push out flights from airports in such unsafe states that in one incident at least the ability of the jet to actually complete its takeoff was in doubt.

The statements that came from the airline and CASA today avoid dealing with the obvious. It’s no good saying ‘we will ensure this never happens again’ when the airline and the agency failed completely to prevent these almost unbelievable breaches of sound operational practice in October. Airlines don’t become dangerous and unsafe overnight. If CASA didn’t know what was going on before this situation arose it should be urgently restructured with competent and committed safety professionals. If it did know, an explanation for its inability to prevent these risky incidents happening is urgently needed.

What was going on its Jetstar to allow a jet to begin moving away from a terminal when the pilots were unaware of the true state of its loading and the disposition of the passengers in relation to the operational limits in the approved flight manual?

How focused were Jetstar’s contractors or direct employees on meeting KPIs when they are overlooking the one that should be up there in lights at all times, which is to keep passengers safe. No-one who has safety top of mind would have dispatched either of these Jetstar single aisle airlines in the state they were in when the doors closed.  But it happened twice at different major Australian airports in the same month.

It doesn’t matter if the blame for these errors resides with company employees or contractors either, Jetstar senior management, and for that matter the entire senior management of Qantas and its board are personally liable in Australian law for the safety of the operations they control and conduct.

These two incidents involve a gross contempt for or ignorance of Australian standards. One of them could by now have been the subject of a Royal Commission or judicial inquiry similar to those that followed three Ansett ANA group Vickers Viscount crashes and one TAA Fokker Friendship tragedy over a period of years from the late 50s into the 60s.

These Jetstar incidents were inexcusable. Had the Melbourne incident ended in tragedy CASA would be in the box being grilled as to how it had exercised oversight of Jetstar, and what findings it had made and what remedies it was attempting to enforce.
No-one should trust their lives or those of their loved ones to Jetstar until the most thorough investigation establishes why it disregarded safety so blatantly in these incidents, and how it is demonstrated that it has comprehensively reformed its practices and ensured that it employs persons with a clear and testable competency in putting safety first.

Again followed by some excellent observations:

1
comet
Posted December 4, 2015 at 7:24 pm | Permalink
The travelling public should be aware that Jetstar is an unsafe airline, running on third world standards of operation.

Politicians across the land should understand that they are responsible for turning Australia’s air safety authority, CASA, into the useless waste of funds that it has now become.

We now have cowboy airlines with no oversight. We can only hope the FAA degrades us into a category 2 backwater.

2
Creeper
Posted December 4, 2015 at 8:28 pm | Permalink
I’d like to see what Tony Davis has to say about this.

One could hope Nick Xenophon is all over this .

3
Damo
Posted December 4, 2015 at 8:39 pm | Permalink
This is what happens when the tail wags the dog and the industry is allowed to be dumbed down and airlines farm out operational jobs to the lowest bidder.

That is not to say the larger airlines don’t do it but the turnover of poorly paid staff by the contract companies only adds to the problem here.

4
Dan Dair
Posted December 5, 2015 at 9:40 am | Permalink
Questions;
Is CASA actually ‘in the pocket’ of the airlines,
or is it merely ‘too close’ to them & consequently finds itself in-agreement with what the airlines do, rather than robustly questioning airline policy.?

Are the politicians &/or Civil Servants really as unaware of the apparent state of (lack of) oversight of Australian aviation as they appear.?

Or, are they attempting to maintain their distance from CASA,
assuming therefore, that they know it’s a problem which needs fixing but don’t believe that they can justify to the public the necessary level of funding to achieve this outcome.?
Would the ‘shock’ of an FAA downgrade have the desired effect of focussing the minds of the appropriate ‘leaders’ on this problem.?

And is this the only way that we can imagine that CASA & the Australian government will actually get a grip of this ongoing problem & resolve it.?

(or will the government decide it can manage very well thank you, as a category two nation.?)

 
P2 comment: The mention of Nick Xenophon is extremely relevant because at a pivotal point in the Pilot training Senate Inquiry, when NX was zoning in on the dodgy safety culture of Jetstar (*1) - somewhat conveniently?? - CASA with very little warning took the bold step of grounding Tiger -

(*1 - Remember "Toughen up Princesses" & Ben Cook Darwin base Fatigue Special Audit report?)  

OK...so one more time round the Mulberry bush..  

&... TICK TOCK goes the Miniscule clock??

Ben S courtesy of Planetalking today:

Why Jetstar's latest incident should alarm flyers
The ATSB says a 'serious incident' is one that could end in a crash, and Jetstar has just had another one

Ben Sandilands
Jetstar’s tail strike incident at Melbourne Airport this week puts another red flag over the Qantas subsidiary’s operations and the unwillingness to date of the supposed safety regulator CASA to ground or restrict its flights.

However the ATSB appears to have fast tracked its inquiry into an incident that imperiled the lives of those on the 180 seat passenger jet bound for Hobart, indicating a final report will be provided by this November.

Under previous direction the ATSB has botched and now delayed its attempts at a PelAir crash inquiry (2009) and proven incapable to date of dealing with an astonishing situation where Qantas and Virgin Australia 737s were forced to land in blinding fog with low fuel at Mildura in 2013, and an appalling screw up that caused serious undetected structural damage to a Virgin ATR turboprop in regional service in NSW in 2014.

The ATSB has abundant reasons from the recent operational history of Jetstar for its speedy reaction.

In October last year another Jetstar single aisle Airbus, this time a 215-220 seat A321 was dispatched from Melbourne Airport in such an unsafe loading balance condition for a flight to Perth that it struggled to become airborne.

The same month Jetstar dispatched an A32o from Brisbane for Melbourne a Jetstar A32o left Brisbane for Melbourne with 16 more passengers on board than advised, meaning the aircraft was about 1,328 kg heavier than the take-off weight used to calculate the take-off and landing data for the flight.

These two October 2015 incidents perforce demonstrated that Jetstar, an Australian licensed subsidiary of Qantas, had lost on two occasions the absolutely essential prerequisite of safe operations of knowing how jets were loaded and that the distribution off passenger numbers and below floor baggage or freight was within the approved safe limits that are found in the flight manuals of all jet airliners.

These incidents raised questions of safety culture in Jetstar that have not yet been answered by an ATSB inquiry, nor addressed by CASA, the gutless safety regulator that conducted a grandiose grounding of Singapore owned Tiger Airways in 2011 after it infringed safe minimum altitude requirements over the Leopold estate near Geelong during a night time go-around at Avalon Airport.

CASA was justified in grounding Tiger, but was it justified in treating Jetstar with comparative indifference over a series of equally disturbing incidents at Melbourne, Cairns and Singapore Airports in earlier years?

The response of CASA to persistently unsafe practices or attitudes by Tiger was to first ground the carrier, and then restrict the number of sectors it could fly each day until it acquired a safety culture and a respect for the regulations.

The safety culture of Jetstar ought to be in the dock of public opinion over the October 2015 incidents, and as the ATSB says in its notification of an investigation, the loading data for last Wednesday’s flight will be part of that inquiry.

Tick tock goes the miniscule clock??

MTF...P2