From Ben Sandilands blog - Plane Talking, on Crikey:-
Nothing can excuse the Albury Virgin ATR safety fiasco, not even this latest piece of ATSB fluff.
The rest of the article – HERE – is worthy of consideration and discussion.
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Mountains to Molehills – ATSB style.
When this ‘incident’ first came to light there were serious questions raised, to which ATSB has not deigned to investigate or answer. The aftermath – 13 passenger flights – are not the aberration, but a resultant of the first in a series of events which remain firmly ignored, unmentioned and; not, as yet addressed.
In short; the root cause of the initial ‘problem’ remains unresolved. The ATR has a facility which allows the two normally interconnected flight control systems (yokes) to be disconnected and operate independently. This in case a manual flight control channel is lost. With a significant amount of opposite direction pressure from the other yoke, (e.g. one pulls up, ‘tuther pushes down) the two flight control systems may be separated. This event occurred during a ‘routine’ descent to approach at Sydney, with no noted flight control problem. The potential for stress and damage caused by opposing control inputs, from two viable systems should have engineering alarm bells ringing, demanding serious, in depth inspection. It did not. The controls were simply reconnected, a cursory inspection conducted and the aircraft returned to service; for the remaining 13 flights.
In other accident events ATSB have played the accompaniment to the CASA preconceived notion, Canley Vale and Pel-Air for example. Where ATSB report supported a stern, rapid prosecution of pilots and operators, through to Coroners court, where required. There are some very serious incidents still on the books at the moment related to turbo-prop powered aircraft – Moranbah and the Newcastle coal loader incident for example; there are some serious, outstanding heavy jet transport incidents, such as Perth and Mildura which are still patiently awaiting their ATSB final report.
If we are serious about ‘safety’ the minister, the government and travelling public need to get over the bi-partisan system of relying on ATSB and CASA to ‘sort it’ and start demanding changes to the way our ‘aviation watchdogs’ set about doing their expensive business. But, enough said. All been said before, and precious little changes. But gods help the government in power when the unthinkable happens and a Royal Commission is demanded.
The time is now, to get our aviation safety house in order, before we run out of dumb luck.
Toot toot.
When 'Darren' is standing looking down into a smoking hole, filled with body parts, will he have a hair out place then? - Big money say not.
Thanks P7, my shout; soon.
Nothing can excuse the Albury Virgin ATR safety fiasco, not even this latest piece of ATSB fluff.
The rest of the article – HERE – is worthy of consideration and discussion.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Mountains to Molehills – ATSB style.
When this ‘incident’ first came to light there were serious questions raised, to which ATSB has not deigned to investigate or answer. The aftermath – 13 passenger flights – are not the aberration, but a resultant of the first in a series of events which remain firmly ignored, unmentioned and; not, as yet addressed.
In short; the root cause of the initial ‘problem’ remains unresolved. The ATR has a facility which allows the two normally interconnected flight control systems (yokes) to be disconnected and operate independently. This in case a manual flight control channel is lost. With a significant amount of opposite direction pressure from the other yoke, (e.g. one pulls up, ‘tuther pushes down) the two flight control systems may be separated. This event occurred during a ‘routine’ descent to approach at Sydney, with no noted flight control problem. The potential for stress and damage caused by opposing control inputs, from two viable systems should have engineering alarm bells ringing, demanding serious, in depth inspection. It did not. The controls were simply reconnected, a cursory inspection conducted and the aircraft returned to service; for the remaining 13 flights.
In other accident events ATSB have played the accompaniment to the CASA preconceived notion, Canley Vale and Pel-Air for example. Where ATSB report supported a stern, rapid prosecution of pilots and operators, through to Coroners court, where required. There are some very serious incidents still on the books at the moment related to turbo-prop powered aircraft – Moranbah and the Newcastle coal loader incident for example; there are some serious, outstanding heavy jet transport incidents, such as Perth and Mildura which are still patiently awaiting their ATSB final report.
If we are serious about ‘safety’ the minister, the government and travelling public need to get over the bi-partisan system of relying on ATSB and CASA to ‘sort it’ and start demanding changes to the way our ‘aviation watchdogs’ set about doing their expensive business. But, enough said. All been said before, and precious little changes. But gods help the government in power when the unthinkable happens and a Royal Commission is demanded.
The time is now, to get our aviation safety house in order, before we run out of dumb luck.
Toot toot.
When 'Darren' is standing looking down into a smoking hole, filled with body parts, will he have a hair out place then? - Big money say not.
Thanks P7, my shout; soon.