[Peetwo]

"Civil Aviation Safety Authority
Gerard Campbell > Executive Manager, Operations Division, CASA"

Indeed, buyer beware of this bloke. Unbelievable that he is acting as the face of Fort Fumble. And as P2 says, he is one of the last Execs from the McComic era that needs to be dispatched to somewhere like McMurdo Sound. That would leave the Witchdoctor and Flyingfiend to go!!!

Fuehrer Campbell is famous for his love of delivering unwarranted pineapples across Australia's farthest regions. And he patiently counted down the years until he had worked his way into a position where he could finally take revenge and deliver Barrier Aviation the mother of all Friday afternoon pineapples. He is a quiet snake, meandering about, not saying much, listening and observing, then acting like a firey whirlwind consuming all in its path.

Attend a pithy discussion with egg head presenting? I think not.

"Safe protected backs for all"

Spot on Gobbles, not the sort of bloke I'd want preaching to the next gen Wannabes...

For the record, from my research Herr Campbell was one of the strongest proponents of the McComic black letter law dispo, that fronted all the most sinister, weasel worded, CASA manuals & DAS directives such as the Enforcement manual:

FOREWORD

As a Commonwealth government authority, CASA must ensure that its decision- making processes are effective, fair, timely, transparent, consistent, properly documented and otherwise in accordance with the requirements of the law.

Most of the regulatory decisions CASA makes are such that conformity with authoritative policy and established procedures will be conducive to the achievement of these outcomes. From time to time, however, decision-makers will encounter situations in which the strict application of policy, in the making of a decision involving the exercise of discretion, would not be appropriate. Indeed, in some cases, the inflexible application of policy may itself be unlawful.

This preface and the following Introduction, explains the way in which the policy and processes set out in this manual are to be used by all CASA’s personnel when making decisions in the performance of their functions, the exercise of their powers and the discharge of their duties. It also explains the processes to be followed if it appears that a departure from policy is necessary or appropriate.

Mandatory Use of Policy and Procedure Manuals

This manual is one of the set of manuals and other documents which comprise CASA’s authorised document set. The authorised document set contains the policy, processes and procedures with which CASA personnel are expected to comply when performing assigned tasks. All CASA personnel are required to have regard to the policies set out in this manual. Except as described in the Introduction, CASA decision-makers should not depart from these policies, processes and procedures.

John F. McCormick

Director of Aviation Safety

  
Hmm...on the Barrier connection, I wonder if Herr Campbell has his fingerprints on any of this disturbing rumour:

A prelude to an Embuggerance ?

PA 23 accident near Mareeba; not much more info, the ATSB are 'on the job'.

Report - HERE.

N.B. I am only relaying some whispers on the wind here.  But there could be a lot MTF if those whispers pan out, however rumour will need to suffice until more accurate information can be sourced.  

The accident of itself will be of some technical interest, there is gossip that the aircraft did not have a MR although that seems unlikely; but, if it turns out to be true, there are some legal angles which may be interesting.  That the aircraft was apparently not insured, which is another curly one for the legal eagles.  

From a channel 7 new blurb, the words “the aircraft used to be owned by a local tourism operator” seemed fairly innocuous until news started to filter through that there are criminal proceeding against the operator Barrier Aviation in the offing.  For those not familiar with that tale of woe, in short, a Cairns based tourism operator was closed down a few years back, under highly contentious circumstances.  There was much of to-do about the closure and the actions of CASA in doing so.  Now it seems there is to be a further round with the owner to be prosecuted; so at least we will be able to get hard fact on this shortly.

What happened to Barrier is a classic embuggerance and to many represents one of the darkest, dirtiest passages in the CASA history.  This is not the thing that has that has drawn attention.  The prosecution and the CASA department of undesirable tricks are the focus of future interest.  

For example; there is a report of a very biased article from a local newspaper which draws inference that the crash of the PA23 is somehow related to the previous owner of the aircraft; who is being prosecuted by CASA.  There are claims that the article is pure malice; CASA spin and designed to denigrate the ex owner of Barrier even further.  This stand alone is of interest and worthy of some judicious ‘digging’.

But for mine; if this all turns out to be true it speaks volumes for the Skidmore double standard approach to regulating the industry.  Prosecution is becoming ‘popular’ when black letter application of the ‘law’ under strict liability is tested in a court, while the smiling, fluffy, feel good tambourine bashing goes in public.  Some would call that two faced, others would say it sets the seal of doom on any meaningful reform of the regulators attitude.  I say I will check this out and see what transpires.  Careful when dealing with rumour is good advice.

Aye well; we shall see.  MTF. (The gods willing and weather permitting).

Toot toot.

The reason being that the quoted foreword from the former DAS McComic was extracted from the latest version 4.4 (published January 2016) of the enforcement manual:

Enforcement manual

Our enforcement manual outlines the policies and strategies we have in place for aviation safety compliance.
Director's preface
Revision history(last update January 2016)
Table of Contents

1. About this manual
   
2. CASA's Enforcement Policy
   
3. Initiating the Enforcement Process
   
4. Compliance-Related Action
   
5. Civil Action - Enforceable Voluntary Undertakings (EVUs)
   
6. Administrative Action
   
7. Administrative Action - Serious and Imminent Risk
   
8. Infringement Notices (Administrative Fines)
   
9. Voluntary Reporting - Aviation Self Reporting Scheme
   
10. The Demerit Points Scheme
    
11. Criminal Action - Prosecution
    
12. Access
    
13. Gathering Evidence and Handling Exhibits
    
14. Note Taking
    
15. Interviewing
    
16. Detaining Aircraft
    
17. Police Assistance
    

• Appendix 1 - Flowcharts - Coordinated Enforcement Processes
  
• Appendix 2 - The Legal basis of Regulatory Enforcement
  
• Appendix 3 - Delegations and Exercise of Powers by Delegates
  
• Appendix 4 - Guidance on the term 'fit and proper person'
  

Complete manual

 Therefore Herr Campbell is still given carte blanche to operate by the McComic black letter law dispo - FFS!  

Also passing strange, is that according to the Director's preface McCormick is still officially the DAS


MTF...P2