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Tassie Coroner is -  "Not happy Greg" 

Via the Oz :

Coroner slams “irrational” ATSB

2:58pmMATTHEW DENHOLM

A coroner has lambasted Australia’s transport safety investigator for its “irrational” refusal to provide witness statements.

A coroner has lambasted Australia’s transport safety investigator for its “irrational” refusal to provide witness statements to a coronial probe into a fatal plane crash.

Tasmanian Coroner Simon Cooper yesterday released the findings of his investigation into the deaths of two men in a light aircraft being used to take photographs of the 2014 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

Mr Cooper’s report confirmed pilot error was involved in the crash, which claimed the lives of pilot Samuel Peter Langford and photographer Timothy Peter Jones, in Storm Bay, near Hobart, on December 29, 2014.

However, Mr Cooper’s report also raised questions about cooperation between coroners and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Mr Cooper said he had directed Tasmania Police investigating the crash to provide the ATSB “with every assistance” for its own investigation, but that the bureau later refused to return the courtesy.

“The subsequent decision by the ATSB to refuse my request for copies of witness statements obtained in the course of its investigation was, in such circumstances, both surprising and disappointing,” Mr Cooper said.

“The ATSB made the obvious point in its reasons for refusal that ‘ATSB investigations and [C]oronial investigations/inquests [sic] fulfil separate statutory functions’.

“However, the common, and crucially important, statutory function of both the ATSB and the coroner is the investigation of fatalities with a view …to endeavouring where possible to prevent avoidable deaths occurring in similar circumstances in the future.”

Mr Cooper said he conducted his investigation into both deaths “on the basis that it was unnecessary to interview witnesses that had already been interviewed by the ATSB”.

“It was understood, wrongly it would appear, that the ATSB would provide copies of those statements to the Coronial Division,” Mr Cooper said. “The request for the statements was made after the ATSB had concluded its investigation and after it had released its report publicly.”

He said in refusing to provide the requested statements the ATSB relied upon section 60 of the federal Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 (Cth), which prohibits the provision of restricted information, including ‘witness statements’.

“However, the prohibition is subject to section 60(5) which empowers the ATSB to issue a certificate authorising the release of witness statements where the ‘disclosure of the information is not likely to interfere with any investigation’,” Mr Cooper said.

“Despite this provision the ATSB still refused the request, when there was no rational impediment, at all, to the provision of the requested statements and its investigation was complete.”

Mr Cooper said both men died of multiple injuries sustained in the plane crash. He noted that the Cesna 172S aircraft had been flying well below the 150 feet minimum altitude set for low-level flying.

When the plane stalled there was insufficient altitude to recover. “The cause of the stall was pilot error,” he said.

The ATSB has so far not responded to a request for comment.

MTF...P2