[Peetwo]

Bureaucratalia & the 6D aviation shame list - Part III

Nicely caught by Gobbles...

Race to the bottom continues? This time it's Ground Handling...

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-20...me/8369814

Mr CHESTER (Gippsland—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) (14:27): I thank the Prime Minister for the opportunity to clarify the record in relation to the incidents referred to by the Leader of the Opposition. On this side of the House we take aviation safety very seriously and we are proud of Australia's enviable safety record. My office this morning has sought some assurances in relation to the reports that were in the media last night and again this morning. I am aware of concerns that were raised in relation to operations by Aerocare, which is an Australian ground handling company working for many of the major airlines at our major airports.

There are a range of mechanisms in place in relation to aviation safety systems, where anyone who is concerned about any safety issues can raise those issues with our safety investigators or the regulatory agencies. These include the ability to make confidential reports directly to the ATSB, which is the Australian aviation safety investigator. I would encourage anyone with genuine concerns in relation to those matters to raise those concerns with our airports, to use those reporting mechanisms.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr CHESTER: I hear those opposite interjecting. It is irresponsible to make allegations without going through the process of actually making those reports known to the safety investigator, being the ATSB. It is typical of Labor to be seeking to scare the Australian travelling public rather than going through the proper processes. I emphasise again that on this side of the House we take aviation safety— (Time expired)

  
Note how this NFI miniscule remains eternally attached to the umbilical chord of the mystique of aviation safety, which is being consistently pedalled by the self-serving M&M and his minon spin doctors - FDS!

It still baffles me how 6D actually believes that the ATSB is some fearless, truly independent transport safety watchdog, that has the ability and power to get to the bottom of scurrilous tales of aviation safety risk and innuendo. Especially when it was highlighted in the 730 Report that the ATSB was doing everything to abrogate their responsibility to investigate anything to do with the suggested Aerocare safety issues....

Extract from 730 transcript of Aerocare segment: 

JAMES THOMAS: He believes conditions at Aerocare, and fatigue levels, are so bad, travellers are at risk.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We could cause a serious accident. We could cause possible harm and damage to airline or people travelling on that airline.

JAMES THOMAS: The workers cite a number of instances. In 2015, a wheelchair lift that looks like this was driven into a bridge by an Aerocare worker. Snapped in half, this is what was left.

On the 28th of November, 2014, at Brisbane Domestic Airport, an Aerocare team had begun pushing back a fully-loaded Tigerair A320 in preparation for take-off, with one crucial problem - the cargo door was still wide open.

GEORGE ORSARIS: Word gets spread around quite quickly that Aerocare boys left the cargo door open on pushback.

JAMES THOMAS: As the plane was being pushed towards the runway, the open door was detected by the plane's crew and air-traffic control. The take-off was aborted.

GEORGE ORSARIS: If it was missed and the plane was to take off down the runway, I'd hate to think what would happen. It's extremely serious.

JAMES THOMAS: Tigerair says it did report the incident to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Three days ago, the bureau told 7.30 the incident wasn't a safety matter because the door was closed, just not locked.

But today, the bureau backtracked, conceding the door was open. It said there was no need, however, to investigate further because the problem was detected before take-off.

The Aerocare workers we spoke to strongly disagree with the safety bureau's assessment.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN 2, FORMER AEROCARE WORKER: They would have fallen out of the sky.

JAMES THOMAS: That serious?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN 2: Yes.

JAMES THOMAS: Fearing repercussions, this former Aerocare worker asked us to obscure his identity. How did we get to a situation where a plane was getting pushed back with a cargo door open?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN 2: If someone said to me fatigue, exhaustion, it would not surprise me one bit.

   

Ps Sometimes the bare Hansard actually inflates the importance and masks the actual poor delivery of the message. Such was the case with miniscule 6D's contribution today.

So for the record here is a clear example of how ineffectual 6D truly is and why he is really only Barnaby's photogenic filter:

Update 20/04/17 - Via the ABC News online:

Worker locked in aircraft cargo hold raises questions over Aerocare safety record

7.30
By James Thomas

Updated 59 minutes agoThu 20 Apr 2017, 10:14am


Photo: Aerocare rejects the claim that it runs an unsafe operation. (Supplied: Aerocare.com.au)

Related Story: Airport staff on split shifts 'sleeping under terminals'

Map: Brisbane Airport 4007

A former Aerocare worker has told 7.30 that a baggage handling supervisor was accidentally locked in the cargo hold of a plane about to take off from Brisbane airport — but it never reported the incident to safety authorities.

Key points:

• Baggage handling supervisor accidentally locked in the hold of a Virgin aircraft
  
• Neither Aerocare nor Virgin reported the incident to safety authorities
  
• Former workers say lack of reporting indicative of lax Aerocare safety standards
  
• Aerocare denies claims, says its safety record is impeccable
  

It is one of a number of claims by current and ex-workers of the airport handling contractor which raise serious safety concerns about Aerocare's operations.

Another former worker at Aerocare said the company had also put passenger health at risk by using the same staff member to clear toilet waste and then, just hours later, refill drinking water on planes.

Do you know more about this story? Email 7.30syd@your.abc.net.au

'We heard banging on the door'
Photo: Paul Ovetchkine, says Aerocare didn't report an incident. (ABC News)

On November 23, 2014 a Virgin 737 was in the final stages of preparation for take-off.

"It was an international flight, all the bags were loaded and we were doing the final check of the plane to make sure there was no damage, and just following standard procedures," Paul Ovetchkine told 7.30.

He was a member of the Aerocare team on the tarmac at the time.

"On my walk-around I found a door opened that was closed before," he said.

"I had a look inside and I couldn't see anything in there, so I closed it up."

What he didn't realise was that when he "closed it up" his supervisor was still inside the cargo hold.

The supervisor "rushed" to the door and "called out" for help.

Mr Ovetchkine said he heard the cries from inside the plane and realised what he'd done.
"We heard banging on the door," he said.

"Once we opened up, he climbed out."

Mr Ovetchkine believes unreasonable company expectations and deadlines contributed to his safety error.

"Obviously it was a mistake — it's always quite a rush to get the plane out on time, we always have to follow certain timelines to get it out.

"I was just super apologetic."

Incident not reported


Photo: An Aerocare baggage handler was accidently locked in the hold of a Virgin aircraft in November 2014. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, file photo)

An internal Aerocare record of the incident shows company representatives spoke to Mr Ovetchkine "about the dangers of the situation" and the "need to be very careful when closing up an aircraft".

But when it came to reporting the incident, Mr Ovetchkine said he was told not to worry about writing an incident report himself and that the report would be handled by the company.

"It is usually, definitely, the procedure to fill out an incident report but at that time it wasn't up to me," Mr Ovetchkine said.

Aerocare and Virgin Airlines said they investigated the matter internally.

They found the supervisor was momentarily locked inside the hold but claim he got himself out and was not banging on the door.

They say the plane would not have taken off until the missing supervisor was found.

They concluded the worker in the cargo hold of the 737 was not a safety matter that needed to be reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Ron Bartsch is the former head of regulatory compliance and safety for Qantas and the former air transport manager for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

He strongly disagrees with the conclusion drawn by Aerocare and Virgin and believes the failure to report the incident to authorities is cause for further investigation.

"That is a very serious incident and something which would be reportable to the relevant authorities," he said.

"The non-reporting of a reportable incident is a very serious situation."

Same person handled water and waste



Photo: Jason Pugh claims Aerocare "cuts corners" all the time. (Supplied: Jason Pugh)

Jason Pugh described the day he quit working for Aerocare in August last year as "a moment of inspiration".

That day he had an minor accident driving a truck at work — one he acknowledges was his fault.

But it was the tipping point for his decision to walk away from a company he claims "cut corners" all the time, even if it risked the safety of passengers.

Mr Pugh cited Aerocare's handling of water and waste by the company.

"Water and waste has to be done by separate people, for obvious reasons," he told 7.30.

"The person filling the water can't obviously drain the waste."

If they did, passenger drinking-water would risk faecal contamination.

"Aerocare, however, was having the same person doing that for two years," Mr Pugh said.

He claimed the safety breach was regularly covered up in the paper work.

"Every flight that we did has a flight folder, which was a bunch of paperwork which went to the airline, the airport and Aerocare, for all of them to keep records," he said.

"And I would say about 50 per cent of them were doctored.

"They would write one person for waste, and then they would make up somebody else on the shift and say that they did the water."

Photo: Jason Pugh's Aerocare roster with same day waste and water shifts highlighted. (Supplied: Jason Pugh)

Mr Pugh's roster shows that he was asked to drain a plane's sewage in the morning and service the passenger drinking water in the afternoon.

"I was asked numerous times to do the water and waste," he said.

'The whole industry will get more dangerous'

Video: Former Aerocare staff talk about their experience working at the company (ABC News)

Aerocare initially agreed and then declined to do an interview with 7.30.

But in a statement it rejected the claims that it runs an unsafe operation.

It said its safety record was impeccable, with no safety breaches issued by any regulatory agency in 25 years.

It added that it had the highest global safety accreditation, had won numerous safety awards and passed 180 audits last year, all whilst maintaining a "low cost mindset".
Mr Pugh said CASA audits were of little concern to Aerocare.

"CASA is a joke," he said.

"There was at least 24-hours' notice that CASA was going to be on site.
"Aerocare would then pull in twice as many people on shift and they would call in every single supervisor.

"That is why they passed the CASA audits — because they know CASA's coming."

Aerocare also denied it was gaming the audit process but said it did, on occasions, roster extra staff to ensure the efficient conduct of audits.

Earlier this week, 83 per cent of Aerocare workers voted to accept a new enterprise bargaining agreement put forward by the company.

Under the new agreement, Aerocare has increased the minimum shift from three hours to four hours, with split shifts being optional.

In a statement the company said, "this is a strong endorsement of the improved wage conditions and other benefits we are offering".

However, the Transport Workers Union criticised the vote, held over the Easter long weekend, saying it "lacked transparency and was held in a climate of intimidation and fear".

Mr Pugh believes the pay and conditions put forward by the company set a dangerous precedent for workers and the flying public.

"The whole industry … will get a lot more dangerous if Aerocare can get away with this sort of stuff, because other companies want to start doing the same thing," he said.

"If the general safety of attitude of Aerocare spreads across the industry, then it's highly likely an aircraft will go down one day because of it."

TICK TOCK miniscule 6D, TICK TOCK indeed -


MTF...P2