A PelAir blast from the past - 
Via the Justinian in 2012
:
![[Image: James_Dominic_pilot_660.jpg?__SQUARESPAC...6809111363]](http://justinian.com.au/storage/people/stories/James_Dominic_pilot_660.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1346809111363)
Pilot Dominic James: put his case
MEANWHILE, your correspondent was diverted by watching Four Corners on Monday night (Sept 3).
It was all about a crash of a small Pel-Air jet off Norfolk Island in November 2009.
The two pilots and four passengers survived, but the story unfolded with the usual Australian bloody mindedness: officialdom in the shape of CASA and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau had decided to blame the pilot for insufficient foresight in fuel calculation and planning for alternate landing sites.
All that after he took off with information that the weather over Norfolk Island was clear.
The rigours of age have destroyed Procrustes' short term memory, but on the deep past he can be elephantine.
Something stirred in the recesses: hadn't Pel-Air lost a small jet in the water, and with fatalities, in the 1980s?
Thanks to Google I found that was indeed correct, but was horrified to see that there had been another Westwind accident in 1985, with three dead at Alice Springs.
It was time to dive in my extensive, and now very yellowed clipping service (this is a joy the young of today will never experience).
And lo, there it was, in The National Times of December 6, 1985, an article that revealed just how far the feet of corporate air service were entangled with those of Commonwealth regulators.
The two pilots of the Pel-Air Westwind that went down off Botany Bay in October 1985 were not around to defend themselves, but what came out of the article was the extent to which the Department of Aviation had dispensed with safety standards at the request of Pel-Air.
The meat in the sandwich in any such departure from safety standards will always be the pilots, as the corporation, driven by profits, will demand performance to the limit of the new dispensation.
Here's the 1985 story from National Times journalist Colleen Ryan:
This caused your correspondent's eyes to water: presumably thinking it's not dangerous trumps the evidence that it was fatally dangerous.
And then the killer explanation of the relationships between Pel-Air and the department's personnel:
One can hardly fail to note the likely factor of pilot fatigue as a result of the department's dispensation, which is exactly nowhere to be seen in the Pel-Air website account of the 1985 crash:
See, it was all the pilots' fault.
ASN report.
Bureau of Air Safety investigation.
That particular crew died, but Dominic James the skipper on the ill-fated 2009 flight, survived.
He's in a position to put his case, but it will need a body more detached than the regulators, CASA and the ATSB, to hear his evidence.
A posting on Crikey on the morning after the Four Corners story was damning of Pel-Air and CASA: the call was out for a Royal Commission to investigate Australian air safety standards.
Your correspondent travels by train out of distrust of these newfangled aircraft, but can only concur. Bring on that Royal Commission.
Ever get the feeling that the bureaucratic (i.e. Iron Ring) mystique of aviation safety is firmly stuck in some kind of a relentless timewarp...
MTF...P2
Via the Justinian in 2012
:Pilot Dominic James: put his caseMEANWHILE, your correspondent was diverted by watching Four Corners on Monday night (Sept 3).
It was all about a crash of a small Pel-Air jet off Norfolk Island in November 2009.
The two pilots and four passengers survived, but the story unfolded with the usual Australian bloody mindedness: officialdom in the shape of CASA and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau had decided to blame the pilot for insufficient foresight in fuel calculation and planning for alternate landing sites.
All that after he took off with information that the weather over Norfolk Island was clear.
The rigours of age have destroyed Procrustes' short term memory, but on the deep past he can be elephantine.
Something stirred in the recesses: hadn't Pel-Air lost a small jet in the water, and with fatalities, in the 1980s?
Thanks to Google I found that was indeed correct, but was horrified to see that there had been another Westwind accident in 1985, with three dead at Alice Springs.
It was time to dive in my extensive, and now very yellowed clipping service (this is a joy the young of today will never experience).
And lo, there it was, in The National Times of December 6, 1985, an article that revealed just how far the feet of corporate air service were entangled with those of Commonwealth regulators.
The two pilots of the Pel-Air Westwind that went down off Botany Bay in October 1985 were not around to defend themselves, but what came out of the article was the extent to which the Department of Aviation had dispensed with safety standards at the request of Pel-Air.
The meat in the sandwich in any such departure from safety standards will always be the pilots, as the corporation, driven by profits, will demand performance to the limit of the new dispensation.
Here's the 1985 story from National Times journalist Colleen Ryan:
Quote:"Under Air Navigation Order 48, pilots are permitted to fly on only two consecutive nights. But Pel-Air had a Department of Aviation dispensation which allowed its pilots to fly on five consecutive nights ...
The Department of Aviation has given Pel-Air a dispensation, which is outside the manufacturer's minimum guidelines for safe operation in the flight manual.
A spokesman for the Department of Aviation told the National Times that, 'There is nothing wrong with the dispensation. The department has the right to make this decision. If they thought it was dangerous they wouldn't do it'."
This caused your correspondent's eyes to water: presumably thinking it's not dangerous trumps the evidence that it was fatally dangerous.
And then the killer explanation of the relationships between Pel-Air and the department's personnel:
Quote:"Pel-Air ... had a close association with some members of the department. Barry Lodge, the senior Westwind examiner for the South Australian region, is well known to Pel-Air personnel. It was Lodge's daughter who received trips on Pel-Air planes between Perth and the east coast of Australia."
One can hardly fail to note the likely factor of pilot fatigue as a result of the department's dispensation, which is exactly nowhere to be seen in the Pel-Air website account of the 1985 crash:
Quote:"Lost control in a turn at 5000 feet after takeoff from Sydney runway 16 at night; crashed into Botany Bay. The captain probably simulated a failure of all three flight attitude indicators while there was a known malfunction in the rate of turn indicator and no external references.
Relevant events and factors:
- There was a known malfunction of the rate of turn indicator.
- The pilot in command possibly simulated simultaneous failures of all three flight attitude indicators.
- There were no external references by which the crew could assess the attitude of the aircraft.
- A loss of control of the aircraft occurred at a height of about 5000 feet.
- The crew did not recover control of the aircraft prior to impact with the sea."
See, it was all the pilots' fault.
ASN report.
Bureau of Air Safety investigation.
That particular crew died, but Dominic James the skipper on the ill-fated 2009 flight, survived.
He's in a position to put his case, but it will need a body more detached than the regulators, CASA and the ATSB, to hear his evidence.
A posting on Crikey on the morning after the Four Corners story was damning of Pel-Air and CASA: the call was out for a Royal Commission to investigate Australian air safety standards.
Your correspondent travels by train out of distrust of these newfangled aircraft, but can only concur. Bring on that Royal Commission.
Ever get the feeling that the bureaucratic (i.e. Iron Ring) mystique of aviation safety is firmly stuck in some kind of a relentless timewarp...
MTF...P2