[Peetwo]

180 minutes and 50 feet? - The difference between Australia's worst aviation disaster and yet another.."the dead pilot ducked up"...and killed himself plus (fill in the number?) 4 innocent pax:

(NB: 180 minutes because that is the difference in the time of day between the peak trading period when there could have been over a 1000 people on site at the DFO and when the crash actually occurred)

Now let's rewind back to December 2004 when the then Minister John Anderson signed off on the proposed Bulla Rd precinct DFO building development plan: see FOI 17-96: https://infrastructure.gov.au/department..._17-96.pdf 

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Note at (e) that CASA did not provide a view but down the track (after the DFO was approved) they did provide input and exemptions for 7 identified OLS breaches:

Ref: https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/inv...-2017-024/ - The airport data for Essendon included seven obstacles that breached the airport’s obstacle limitation surfaces (OLS). Four of those obstacles infringed the runway 26 transitional surface component of the OLS and were associated with two buildings within the outlet centre that were not struck by the aircraft. CASA accepted the breaches in 2015 after the airport operator applied lighting and colour to the obstacles to mitigate their risk to aircraft operations.

 
However besides these Annex 14 identified OLS breaches it does not appear that CASA provided a view/opinion on the possible public safety implications of building a shopping centre complex that has a parking capacity for up to 1900 vehicles (i.e a minimum of 1900 people)?

Which makes it passing strange that a bit over 2 years later it would appear, the supreme expert authority on all matters of an aviation safety nature, offered very contrary advice to the then Minister for Transport Mark Vaille?  

Ref - https://www.smh.com.au/business/sydney-a...dpgh3.html


"...Mr Vaile cited "public safety" concerns for the decision, expressing concern about the proximity of the proposed shopping centre to the end of runways..."

& ref - https://www.smh.com.au/business/airport-...dpglb.html

"...Transport minister Mark Vaile knocked back the proposal on safety grounds because he feared a jumbo jet could plough into the shopping centre if it overshot the third runway..."

  
What makes all this even more bizarre is that the CASA bureaucrat that would have helped facilitate that CASA 'view'/'opinion' would have been the same individual that said to Senator Fawcett at Senate Estimates...(see Carmody's response to Sen Fawcett's question at about 02:30 min):

How is it remotely possible that CC could not remember the advice given to a Minister a decade before on the very same issues to which Senator Fawcett was referring? 

Hmm...maybe CC has early onset Alzheimer's?   


MTF...P2 

Ps Speaking of overshooting runways...