[Peetwo]

Update 23/02/17: YMEN VH-ZCR CFIT fatal accident.

Via the Oz today:

Profit shouldn’t override safety

12:00amJOSEPH WHEELER
When is an airport not about ­aviation? In Australia at least, the answer to that question depends on whom you ask.

---

Moves to limit airport’s growth

12:00amCHIP Le GRAND

Curbing Essendon Airport’s activities would reduce by two-thirds the number of flights to and from the airfield.

---

SSHH - Don't tell P1...

Crash plane passed service tests

12:00amPAUL CLEARY

The plane that crashed at Essendon Airport killing five people was in excellent condition, a maintenance company says.

The twin-engine Beechcraft Super King Air that crashed this week at Essendon Airport killing five ­people was in excellent condition when it was serviced about eight weeks before the crash, according to the company that did the job.

A technician at service company Interair said there were “absolutely no issues whatsoever” with the aircraft when it underwent a “routine” service.

The technician, who asked not to be named, said the plane had done about 20 hours of flying after the service, and he said it was “quite surprising” that such a plane could crash in the way that it did.

The crash appears to have raised some thorny regulatory ­issues associated with the owner and operator responsibilities, and that the pilot was under investi­gation for an earlier incident by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

The Beechcraft had been owned by a Bendigo company that trades under the name MyJet, but the ownership was being transferred to Australian Corporate Jet Centres, a charter company based at Essendon Airport.

However, ACJC had not obtained all of the paperwork at the time of the accident, so it was not the registered operator.

The pilot, Max Quartermain, had cross-hired the plane from the people who used to own MyJet.

Mr Quartermain underwent proficiency checks with CASA after he came close to colliding with another plane at Mount Hotham in September 2015.

But the investigation by ATSB, which is to be released no later than May, is understood to have found that Mr Quartermain experienced difficulties with his GPS tracking while approaching the ski resort airport in cloudy skies and came within 90m of another plane coming in to land.

Veteran aviator Dick Smith said the Mount Hotham incident was similar to the issues he has been raising about Hobart ­airport.

In letters he sent to CASA, ATSB and the minister last month, Mr Smith explained how he was forced to manually step down in altitude because the air traffic controllers were not using the new digital system known as ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast).

“This is exactly the circumstances of Tasmania of not using the radar we have,” Mr Smith said.

Former Qantas pilot Bill Hamilton, who flew 747s for 35 years, says that ADS-B has not made the skies any safer and has instead shifted costs on to aircraft operators.

Mr Hamilton was responding to an article in The Australian last month in which CASA chief executive Shane Carmody said ADS-B would vastly improve air safety.

From February 2, all Australian aircraft engaged in airline transport, charter work or other aerial work must have ADS-B equipment installed and in use.

“ADS-B makes the sky a safer place by allowing aircraft to know each other’s location. It also gives air traffic controllers a much more accurate picture of what is going on up there,” he wrote.

But Mr Hamilton said: “There’s an enormous cost shift from air services to airlines and aircraft ­operators. Hundreds of millions of dollars of costs without any reduction in air service charges to airlines. It’s allowed them to get rid of a lot of ground-based aviation aids, nobody has ever produced a cost-benefit analysis of ADS-B.

“But there is a cost effectiveness of ADS-B from Airservices’ viewpoint. It is very cost effective, shifting cost to airlines.”

ADS-B was the result of a “crusade” by a small group of people in Airservices.
CASA operates a “just culture” compliance regime that does not have statutory fines and suspensions for negligence by pilots.

A CASA spokesman said this approach meant “people are not punished for acts or omissions that are commensurate with their ­experience, qualifications and training”.
An “honest mistake” could be a complete defence for charges faced under civil aviation regulations, he added.

Asked whether it was appropriate for pilots involved in matters being investigated by the ATSB to continue flying without any restrictions, the CASA spokesman said “it may well be — if this does not pose unacceptable risks to air safety”.

“In any case where an event that has given rise to an ATSB investigation has also given CASA cause to be concerned about the ability of a pilot to fly safely, CASA is able to take necessary action to vary or suspend the pilot’s licence until CASA can be satisfied that any shortcomings or deficiencies in the pilot’s skills or abilities have been corrected,” he said.

Thank you to South African photo & aviation investigative journalist Mark D Young who tweeped me this much cleaner Youtube vid of the final seconds of the final fatal flight of VH-ZCR..

MTF...P2