[Peetwo]

PASO, dots, dashes & an unfortunate ditching - Part II

From the Iron Bar list of achievements and connections to PASO:

A list of the more notable assignments Iron Bar has completed in the Pacific region in the past few years include:

• Advisor to the Timor-Leste Government and Director of Civil Aviation Division as an aviation regulations specialist to the Asia Development Bank (ADB) funded Infrastructure Technical Assistance (ITA) Project and assisted preparation for the ICAO USOAP audit in 2010.
  
• Member of the Legal and Technical Review team of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) funded Pacific Aviation Safety Office (PASO) project across all eight island PASO Treaty member nations including: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu.
  
• Specialist aviation advisor to the Board of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Republic of South Africa to develop their two year Corporate Strategic Plan.
  
• Developed technical training manuals for the Australian Commonwealth Government funded AusAID program for safety regulators in Flight Operations and Airworthiness technical inspectors with the Pacific Aviation Safety Office in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
  
• Represented the Qantas Airways CEO on the Federal Government’s Aviation Regulation Review Taskforce.
  
• Drafted the enabling legislation for the establishment of an Airports Authority for the Kingdom of Tonga as part of the World Bank sponsored Pacific Aviation Investment Program
  
• Development of the Aviation White Paper for the Papua New Guinea Civil Aviation Safety Authority – Flight Plan to Sustainability
  
• Provision of ongoing specialist aviation legal and technical expertise as a member of the Federal Government Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).
  
• Undertaken safety reviews, audits and consultancy throughout the Asia-Pacific Region including Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Myanmar, Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa, Kiribati, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jordan, Malaysia, The Philippines, United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, South Africa and New Caledonia.
  

On the subject of the still missing ICAO notification (ref: A little more meā maximā culpā.) of the VH-NGA ditching, apparently the ATSB are still looking but at this point in time it is not looking promising (at either end... ). 

However a quick reference to pg 33 of the 1st ICAO APAC Annual Safety Report would appear to support the theory that ICAO were never notified:

Still waiting for formal verification but in the meantime for perhaps another very good reason  for the non-notification of the ditching and the subsequent subterfuge of the ATSB investigation, please refer to the following WikiLeaks cable link: http://auntypru.com/wp-content/uploads/2...ileaks.pdf

In particular note the date in bold red -    

Canonical ID: 09CANBERRA1081_a

Subject: AUSTRALIA: FAA COMPLETES ASSESSMENT, NEXT STEPS

From: Australia Canberra

To: Australia Melbourne, Australia Perth, Australia Sydney,

Department of Commerce, Secretary of State, White House

Original Classification: CONFIDENTIAL

Current Classification: CONFIDENTIAL

Previous Handling Restrictions: -- Not Assigned --

Archive Status: -- Not Assigned --

Type: TE

Locator: TEXT ONLINE

Reference(s): -- N/A or Blank --

Executive Order (E.O.): -- Not Assigned --

Markings: -- Not Assigned --

Enclosure: -- Not Assigned --

Concepts: -- Not Assigned --

TAGS: Australia [AS]

Economic Affairs--Aeronautics and Aviation; Civil Aviation [EAIR]

Office: -- N/A or Blank --

Document Character Count: 4046

Date: 2009 December 7, 05:33 (Monday)

---

1. (C/NF) Summary: The FAA team concluded their audit

(reftels) and gave a brief assessment of preliminary

findings. While the team recognized improvements on previous

shortcomings and commended many areas, a few

problems remain. Australian officials seem committed to

overcoming the shortcomings before a second and final FAA

visit within the next three months, but the possibility of a

category downgrade does exist and is being taken

seriously. The team outlined the sequence of events going

forward and agreed to work closely with Embassy Canberra.

End Summary.

---

Problem:

--------

3. (C/NF) While the team recognized improvements on previous

shortcomings and commended many areas, there

remain a few shortcomings, principally a shortage of

properly-trained inspectors and excessive delegation of

regulatory functions to carriers.

Approximate Timeline:

---------------------

4. (C/NF) Based on our conversations with FAA team members,

following is a rough sequence of events going forward:

-- Two weeks: Informal letter FAA team to CASA (through

State/Embassy Canberra) delineating specific areas from

their assessment that need to be addressed. This is meant to

aid CASA to swiftly focus efforts on overcoming

shortcomings.

-- 30 days: Formal State front-channel cable with official

report of the week-long assessment, constituting official

notification from FAA to CASA under ICAO. According to the

FAA team, this cable will most likely state that Australia

does not/not comply with ICAO standards and indicate that, if

the problems are not remedied, it would be downgraded to

Category 2. The cable will also request further

consultations, which would include a second visit to

Australia within 65 days after the first visit.

-- 65-90 days: Second visit to Australia, probably by the

end of February 2010, by a smaller team. This would be a

shorter verification trip which would determine whether or

not to recommend a downgrade to Category 2.

-- Mid-March 2010: Approximate timeframe when FAA would

publish official notice of a Category 2 downgrade, in the

event this were to happen.

Preventing Worst-Case Scenario

-------------------------------

5. (C/NF) A downgrade to Category 2 would be the worst-case

scenario, which would entail measures such as

freezing Australia-U.S. flight operations to current levels

and terminating code-sharing arrangements, such as the one

between Qantas and American Airlines. CASA officials are not

taking this possibility lightly and seem committed to

resolve the shortcomings in order to avoid a downgrade.

6. (C/NF) Comment: FAA team members were extremely satisfied

with CASA officials' openness and eagerness to

make constructive improvements based on the assessment. FAA

Qmake constructive improvements based on the assessment. FAA

and CASA clearly have a good working relationship and

we will monitor progress toward maintaining Category 1

status. We will also monitor that CASA's efforts enjoy

adequate support at the ministerial level as well as from

CANBERRA 00001081 002 OF 002

Australia's commercial airlines.

BLEICH

Just saying...


MTF...P2