[Peetwo]

While the Cat is away...?? The trouble with having a photogenic filter for a miniscule is that while Chester continues on his selfie tour (self-aggrandisement, self-flagellation, self-preserving..?? etc.), the Mandarins (& their minions like Beaker & Skidmark) are busy putting out past fires, watering down past industry concerns and setting in place obstructions and future obfuscation smokescreens. All this of course is purely in their own self-interest  to maintain the status quo and to ensure their job security throughout the length of the next Parliament - 'round and round the Mulberry bush'...   

Classic example of this bureaucratic rule of pre-election obfuscation & whitewashing, was with Murky's cynical release of the State SSP - The 'despicable' Dazzling Dazza - just prior to the calling of the DD election. 

Also the recent flurry of activity by Beaker & the ATSB, examples today with MH370 debacle & in the Beaker O&O'd Mildura fog duck-up FR - Three years for this? - Part III

Fortunately there is a growing tide of people that are now much more informed and prepared to call bollocks to the bureaucratic 'mystique of aviation safety' charade:

IsDon - ..If you have experienced yet another display of incompetent forecasting by BoM and the field is below minima for longer than 60 minutes then, with nowhere else to go, you're committed to land regardless of the minima.

That said, expect the Monday morning quarterbacks (ATSB) to pillory whatever decision you make based upon airmanship and the best information you have available at the time. Especially if doing otherwise might actually find the route cause of the issue and that route cause may lay the blame squarely at the feet of Airservices Australia or BoM or some other government organisation that might be an embarrassment to some politician somewhere. How long has it taken for this report to come out, three years? How long did the pilots on these aircraft have to make their decisions? 15 mins? Maybe less.

The discussions here so far have missed the main point of this incident. I find a lot of similarities with the ATSBs handling of the disgraced Norfolk Is investigation and report on this incident. In both cases the ATSB has deliberately attempted to deflect any blame from BoM, CASA, Airsevices or any other government agency and has tried, and failed, to blame the crew.

It wasn't so long ago that the ATSB was formed. It was perceived, at the time, that CASA had a conflict of interest when it came to investigating accidents and incidents as it may seek to hide any blame possibly attributable to its own failings. Fair enough that an independent organisation should be tasked with that responsibility. This incident, and the Norfolk Is debacle, have demonstrated that the ATSB has a way too cosy relationship with other government entitities and will seek to deflect blame from them at all costs. Including destroying the reputations and careers of the crews involved.

Time for the ATSB to go.

  &..

This report is a complete joke.

The discussions here so far have missed the main point of this incident. I find a lot of similarities with the ATSBs handling of the disgraced Norfolk Is investigation and report on this incident. In both cases the ATSB has deliberately attempted to deflect any blame from BoM, CASA, Airsevices or any other government agency and has tried, and failed, to blame the crew.

Completely agree. Government departments spending three years getting each others' backsides covered before finally releasing the report and hanging the crew out to dry. Same as Pelair.

1. The report doesn't place enough emphasis on the seriousness. Had one or both of these aircraft's automation not tracked the RNAV so accurately, we could have been looking at hundreds of dead bodies. This was a deadly serious occurrence where the last piece of cheese which saved the day was pot luck.

2. The elephant in the room was completely avoided - still CASA allows RPT to plan to a remote single runway destination.

3. The quality of the forecasts has dropped so much in twenty years. BoM understaffed - quite possibly, but get it fixed. I don't expect forecasts to be 100% all of the time, but last five years they've been a joke. "Fog forecasting is hard" in the report... No ****!!! But they used to get it right twenty years ago, why not now?

4. How long was the VOR AWIS not repaired? "Months" is the rumour I heard the other day. Why wasn't it fixed? Why did it happen to get fixed within a day of the incident occurring? Why didn't the ATSB mention this? What a huge cover up!! Had it been working, at TOPC out of Adelaide, the crew would have tuned in and realised Mildura was turning to crap. They could have turned around and done an autoland. FIX YOUR EQUIPMENT, ASA. This is why airports are forced to install their own AWIS VHF - ASA don't want the liability and cost of maintaining navaid AWIS, they're washing their hands of it.

5. Why do we only have one cat III ILS in the entire country? Mildura takes bunch of high capacity RPT every day. Why doesn't it have at least one or two ILS?

ATSB - complete joke, have lost all respect, in bed with regulator.
BOM - give them the money they need to get the forecasts right
ASA - stop wasting money on bullshit and spend it on infrastructure, like ILS and AWIS and maintenance
Pilots - do exactly what we were doing thirty years ago, with half the support, half the navaids, half the fuel - with the knowledge that if all the holes line up, you'll get hung out to dry by the ATSB.

Hoorah for IsDON & Slippery Pete off the UP -
However such real & astute opinions on the current state of affairs is falling on the very deaf ears of a miniscule who clearly has NFI what his bureaucrats are doing in his name...
MTF...P2