[Peetwo]

Comardy Capers:  Fort Fumble in hypocritical, duplicitous disarray -

Off the CASA meets the Press thread yesterday:

 

Update: Via Brissie Times...

January 25 2017 - 6:32PM

Queensland pilot Josh Hoch granted bail once he supplies surety

Chris Burns

The Mount Isa charter pilot alleged to have put glass beads in his rivals' planes is to be granted bail from the Mount Isa Magistrates Court. 

However, Josh Hoch will likely be in the Mount Isa Police Station watch house on Australia Day. Part of his conditions set by Magistrate Stephen Guttridge is that Mr Hoch supply $50,000 surety before release. 
  
Josh Hoch's solicitor Michael Spearman leaves the Mount Isa Police Station watch house on Wednesday afternoon. Photo: Chris Burns

The Mount Isa Court House had not received the surety or approved the paperwork by its closing time of 4.30pm, Wednesday. The court opens again at 8.30am on Friday. Thursday is the Australia Day public holiday.  

Mr Hoch is to appear again before the Mount Isa Magistrates Court on February 22. He is charged with 342 offences. 

Police prosecutor Sergeant Vaughan Cooper opposed bail and said five of the charges had a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, Mt Isa's North West Star reported today.
 
"He is at risk of flight, quite literally," Sergeant Cooper said. 

"His capacity not just to leave Queensland, but Australia." 

Sergeant Cooper said one of the charges related to a Piper Chieftain plane that lost power flying from the Northern Territory to Mount Isa. There were three people on board.

Sergeant Cooper alleged that an inspection of the plane revealed glass beads in the oil filter. 

Sergeant Cooper alleged also that oil had been removed from a Cessna plane kept at the Mount Isa Airport. This was discovered during a daily inspection on August 18, 2016. 

On September, 2016, a Piper Chieftain about to fly from Mount Isa to Burketown experienced loss of oil pressure, the court heard. The flight was aborted. An oil sample allegedly showed glass beads, metals and dirt mixed in with it, Sergeant Cooper said.
 
On October 6 to 7 a Cessna belonging to the Northern Territory Air Services, travelling between Alice Springs and Mount Isa, experienced low pressure. Glass beads were allegedly found in the engines, Sergeant Cooper said. 

On October 18 a pilot on another plane noticed a drop in pressure. The plane arrived in Mount Isa safely. It is alleged that an inspection found paste in the oil system. 

Sergeant Cooper said other offences included fraud. Mr Hoch is alleged to have supplied two fraudulent insurance claims. 

Mr Hoch did not have proper accreditation of an aircraft, the prosecutor alleges. 

The court heard that Mr Hoch has flown Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter and Katters Australian Party State MPs Rob Katter and Shane Knuth through his charter service. The Federal MP has paid $275,000 in total to Mr Hoch for his charter services. 

The prosecutor alleges further that the defendant has flown an aircraft to hide it from police. 

Mr Hoch's solicitor Michael Spearman, Resolute Legal's principal lawyer,  said the charges were "quite circumstantial" and said many of the charges "doubled-up". 

Mr Spearman said that Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has known of Mr Hoch's flights since 2013. They could have grounded him immediately if they had concerns with the pilot and audited the company, he said. "Despite knowing of the allegations for months they could have grounded him." 

Mr Hoch has already suffered a "trial by jury" and it has affected his business. He also has two young children and a long-term partner. 

"There are significant stresses in the family right at this point," Mr Spearman said. 
Other bail conditions is that Mr Hoch not apply for a passport. If he has one he must surrender it. 

Mr Hoch cannot pilot a plane or enter an airport. He must also report to the Mount Isa Police Station on specific days twice a week. He also must not contact witnesses. 
For more Mt Isa news see the North West Star. 

  

First to join the dots to 'where the hell was CASA' (in bold above), was Planetalking... :

CASA's belated approval of 'rogue' bush pilot called into question
Jan 25, 20173 Comments

A lower court case in Queensland has heard gravely serious allegations made against a bush pilot following a major police operation

Then today Dick Smith comes out swinging, via the Townsville Bulletin:

Dick Smith at a hangar in Bankstown Airport, Bankstown. Picture: Melvyn Knipe

Entrepreneur Dick Smith blasts CASA after it holds back on any commitment to internal review
[img=0x0]http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/article/5125623aff287fc9a5f106519d2b18e1?esi=true&t_template=s3/chronicle-tg_tlc_storyheader/index&t_product=TownsvilleBulletin&td_device=desktop[/img]KIERAN ROONEY AND CHRIS MCMAHON, Townsville Bulletin
January 25, 2017 8:27pm

THE Civil Aviation Safety Authority has been plunged into chaos, labelled as “dysfunctional” in the wake of claims it knew about concerns over Mount Isa pilot Josh Hoch as early as 2013.

Lawyer Michael Spear told a court at Mr Hoch’s bail appearance that CASA had known about conduct related to the 342 charges police had laid.

“(The flights) have happened since 2013, CASA has known about these flights since 2013,” he said.

“Now if CASA had any concern about a pilot it can invoke provisions of section 30DC of the Civil Aviation Act instantly grounding a pilot if there is a serious and imminent risk to air safety.

“Now CASA has not done so, despite knowing of the allegations for months, these started back in October (2016) and certainly those charges from back in 2013.

“CASA conducted an audit for Mr Hoch and his company and reissued his AOC (Air Operators Certificate) earlier last year.

“If CASA hasn’t grounded him, they don’t consider him to be a serious risk to the public and I would submit that CASA would be far more cognisant of safety in aviation than the police service.”

Entrepreneur Dick Smith, a former Civil Aviation Authority chairman and advocate for reform, said it did not surprise him to hear the authority had known about accusations but not acted.

“CASA is a totally dysfunctional organisation and because of that I would believe anything,” he said.

“This seems to be an ongoing problem. It tends to concentrate on the good players and the rogue ones are too hard I think. It’s basically very weak.

“Some of these alleged acts also seem to involve oversight at the local airports, I wonder if people have known about this bloke and done nothing.”

Mr Smith said CASA did not aggressively pursue rule breakers.

“As chairman I introduced an administrative fines system. Instead of writing continuous letters to noncompliers they would be fined.

“After the Seaview disaster we discovered the regulator knew what was going on but just kept writing letters.”

But the organisation has held back on any pledge to conduct an internal review, with a spokeswoman committing to read the current police investigation.

“CASA personnel have been working closely with Queensland Police in Operation Oscar-Demotic since October 2016, culminating in Mr Hoch’s arrest,” she said.

“Our role involved the provision of specialist aviation-related technical advice.

“CASA is actively reviewing information arising out of the Queensland Police investigation and will take such further action as necessary.”

The department did not answer questions about whether CASA had received complaints about Mr Hoch in previous years or whether it would conduct its own research into how he received his licences

“It would be inappropriate to comment further on those matters at this point due to ongoing investigations,” she said.

“It is important to note that the vast majority of commercial aircraft operators in Australia are professional, responsible pilots who put safety as their number one priority and comply with all relevant safety regulations.”

Now compare that to the above posts starting from here - Joining dots on Comardy & the Iron Ring bluff - Part II - &/or read some of the disturbing tales of embuggerance - HERE.  You begin to get a perspective on why aviation luminaries like Dick Smith, David Forsyth and industry advocate groups like the RAAA, AMROBA or the AAAA's, are so concerned with the toxic, dysfunctional culture, that despite the ASRR recommendations, still remains within Aviation House...  


UDB!!! TICK TOCK Comardy & DDDD_MNFI, TICK bloody TOCK -  


MTF...P2