[Peetwo]

BRB brain teaser: The Iron Ring mole within?

Damn that Blind Freddy is good -  

Still haven't worked out all the dots and complimentary dashes myself and yet BF is already second guessing the brain teaser plot...  

As many will be aware I have been otherwise engaged in hoovering up the ATSB ADREP/ECCAIRS aberration crumb trail and what I have discovered so far poses more troubling questions than answers. However I will try to step the BRB through the mess of scattered and fragmented crumbs in order to provide background to this year's AGM brain teaser...  

 Quote from previous post: "..From that PDF it would appear that the original report was modified on 10/11/2015 at 8:13:02 am (click 'file' then click 'properties') by 'author' E.Hargreaves (ATSB REPCON Manager & ICAO co-ordinator)..." 

The date is interesting as it was 8 days out from the anniversary of the VH-NGA ditching. In the context of the re-opened investigation this should mean that a public interim statement was about to be released with details of the progress of the ongoing investigation.

Although not obliged to under Annex 13, most States tend to keep ICAO in the loop and forward the interim statement (e.g. MH370).

Given the nature of the VH-NGA re-investigation (findings from the Senate AAI inquiry & TSBC peer review) I believe EH has felt obliged; or was instructed to file a ADREP/ECCAIRS notification/progress report.

In that process it would appear that EH has discovered that the VH-NGA ditching had no prelim or original final report on file...  

In an attempt to track any other similar aberrations/duck-ups I began to work my way through all Australian serious incidents and accidents notified to ICAO from 2008 till today.

That was when I noticed that a large volume of ATSB AAI prelim/final PDF reports were created and forwarded to ICAO ADREP/ECCAIRS in the same week the ATSB REPCON manager/ICAO co-ordinator modified the PDF copy of VH-NGA prelim report.

Most of the reports submitted to ICAO in that week and a bit were investigations from 2008 to 2010 and had final reports made public before 2012. This just so happens to correspond to when EH was appointed in the role as REPCON Manager.

For obvious reasons, this got me thinking to who it was that EH had replaced in the role...  

Here is an extract from the previous manager's LinkedIn webpage:

former Manager, Notifications & Confidential Reporting

Company Name: Australian Transport Safety Bureau
Dates Employed: Nov 2001 – Apr 2014
Employment Duration: 12 yrs 6 mos
Location: Canberra

Oversight of the assessment and categorisation and data entry of all mandatory aviation safety incident reports and the ATSB's confidential reporting system (REPCON). Other responsibilities include:

Safety education coordinator and presenter
Database management including data extraction (non technical)
Change management board member
TSI Regulation reporting oversight and development
International Confidential Aviation Safety Systems (ICASS) member

 
Still many fascinating connections and parallels to explore with this individual but for the benefit of the BRB, I refer to the before (ATSB) & after (ATSB) vocation entries for SY:

Before:

Flight Data Officer/Research Officer/Administration
Company Name: Airservices Australia
Dates Employed: Jan 1990 – Nov 2001
Employment Duration: 11 yrs 11 mos
Location: Adelaide & Canberra

Joined as FDO in Adelaide and transferred to Canberra as an admin officer. Held positions in Regulation (pre CASA), AIS, Flow Management (database admin), HR and Environment (ESIR data management). Seconded to the ATSB for 3 months before ultimately transferring there 12 months later on promotion as the Database Administrator.

---

[/url]
Loadmaster

Company Name: Royal Australian Air Force
Dates Employed: Jul 1975 – Nov 1987
Employment Duration: 12 yrs 4 mos
Location: Canberra, Pearce, Sinai (Egypt)

[url=https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/946571/]Operations and instructor on Iroquois (UH-1B/H) And Squirrel (AS350B). Total flying time 2,750 hours. Search & Rescue duties 2FTS at RAAF Pearce, WA. Peace keeping duties in the Sinai Peninsula between Aug 83 to Feb 84

---

After:


Data Analyst
Company Name: Airservices Australia
Dates Employed: Jul 2015 – Present
Employment Duration: 2 yrs
Location: Canberra, Australia

   
Which finally brings me to the BRB (pop quiz) brain teaser : Q/ Why would such an experienced, long serving and faithful public servant, leave a secure middle management job with the ATSB, for an unexplained 15 month leave of absence, only to return to a lesser position with AirServices Australia?    


MTF...P2