[Peetwo]

Forwarded to me by Cap'n Wannabe - TY CW...

By 'that man' in the Oz:
 

Call to make seaplanes safer


12:00amEAN HIGGINS

The aviation watchdog will consider Canadian advice that stall warning systems be fitted on the model of seaplane that crashed.

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Inquiry call to make seaplanes safer

The aviation watchdog will consider Canadian advice that stall warning systems be fitted on the model of seaplane that crashed into Sydney’s Hawkesbury River on Sunday, a recommendation made after an almost identical ­accident in Quebec.

The Canadian Transportation Safety Board made the call in its final report released in September into the crash of a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver in 2015 that killed six.

The Canadian investigation report warned that unless stall warning equipment were fitted to the aircraft — usually a siren or a “stick shaker” vibrating the control column that goes off when the flow of air over the wings becomes unstable — such accidents would happen again.

While a spokesman for the plane’s operator, Sydney Seaplanes, declined to comment, it is understood the aircraft was not fitted with such a system.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said commercial aircraft in Australia had to have either natural aerodynamic qualities that would warn the pilot by feel that it was about to stall or an “independent” warning system such as a siren or stick shaker.

Since DHC-2s were “vintage aircraft manufactured from 1947 to 1967”, they would not have been originally equipped with such a device, Mr Gibson said, and there was no requirement to have them retrofitted.

“It is standard practice in response to a significant fatal accident for CASA to conduct an internal regulatory and safety review in order to identify improvement opportunities,” Mr Gibson said. “This review will give due consideration to the Canadian … recommendations.”

The Canadian accident was caused by a stall, and was eerily similar to that in the Hawkesbury on New Year’s Eve: a nose dive at low altitude, during a sharp turn in hilly terrain, on a joy flight.

Most aviation experts think Sunday’s accident also involved a stall, possibly caused by a downdraft from wind travelling over the surrounding hills.

The crash killed Canadian pilot Gareth Morgan and millionaire British chief executive Richard Cousins, his sons William, 25, and Edward, 23, his fiancee Emma Bowden, the art editor of OK Magazine, and her 11-year-old daughter Heather Bowden Page. Ms Bowden was the daughter of Gerry Bowden, who served for nine years in Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government in the 1980s and early 90s.

Yesterday, Britain’s high commissioner Menna Rawlings and Malcolm Turnbull held a minute’s silence for the victims of the seaplane crash at a cricket match between Australian and British parliamentarians at Scots College in Sydney.

NSW police specialist divers will mount an operation this morning to recover the wreckage.

While pilots are trained to deal with stalls, caused by insufficient lift at low speeds, initially the aircraft will plunge sharply downward and they require sufficient height to recover.

The Canadian report noted that DHC-2 Beavers, used around the world for sightseeing and remote area flying, would be particularly susceptible.

“Given the number of DHC-2s without a stall warning system in commercial operations, combined with the fact that low-­altitude manoeuvres are an integral part of bush flying, it is reasonable to conclude that a stall at low altitude is likely to occur again,” the report said.

The regulator, Transport Canada, is understood to be considering the board’s report.

One of Australia’s most experienced seaplane aviators, Kevin Bowe, for many years owned, operated and flew five DH-2 Beavers for joy flights in the Whitsundays.

Mr Bowe said he had not had stall warning devices installed on his fleet because he believed pilots were better off relying on their own feel of the aircraft.

“The Beaver aircraft is a very docile aircraft to fly,” Mr Bowe said. “If a pilot has been flying them a fair bit, they have a feeling about them if they are approaching a stall.”

CW asks the question - is this a kneejerk reaction? More to the point is this another example of CASA being reactive (rather than proactive) to an identified (Canuck) safety issue that CASA should have been all over long before now?

Still beggars belief that CASA is trying to second guess the ATSB investigation before they've even recovered the aircraft...

MTF...P2