[Peetwo]

Dots, dashes & ICAO ADREP aberrations - Part II

Other than the missing (original) final report for VH-NGA and the worse no record at all for VH-PGW, - I have discovered further (yet to be explained) aberrations with the Australian relay of required Annex 13 AAI reports to the ICAO ADREP/ECCAIRS. 

The biggest aberration that I have discovered so far is there is no preliminary or final report for the Mildura fog duck-up...

An occurrence that, except for the skill of the Flight crew, had the potential to be the worst aviation disaster in the history of Australian aviation. An occurrence that the lessons learnt would surely have worldwide industry relevance for mitigating any potential reoccurrences.

However maybe it isn't relevant to the rest of the world and with the exception of pilot error; or operator stupidity; or poor regulatory oversight..etc;  they have already learnt that lesson and taken proactive steps to mitigate min fuel related occurrences.

Reference from Planetalking, via the Search 4 IP post #185:    

James Nixon
July 11, 2017 at 3:23 pm

I call it “the cleanest third world country in the world”.

After 31 years in the industry I am still amazed that an Australian A380 can fly from Dubai to Sydney and not have to carry an Alternate because of a CASA “Grandfather Clause”.

This saves them carrying 20 tonnes of fuel every day compared to international airlines, and has resulted at least one declaration of emergency so they could land below minima. That flight didn’t even have enough fuel to divert to Canberra.

Twice inbound Australian international flights have had to declare emergencies when arriving at Perth after unforecast weather materialised. One flight, from Singapore, Pilots even discussed ditching until a paxing Captain convinced them otherwise.

Despite being called (behind their backs) “AUSTR-ONAUTS” for their pedantic ways, Australian pilots routinely set off to destinations in Australia without carrying enough fuel to reach an alternate airport, carrying only enough to cover and INTER or TEMPO for bad weather.

But they don’t get it. It’s not only weather that can cause troubles. The better the weather, the more light planes out and about.

One day, before flying from Alice Springs to Darwin, a Flight Engineer and I had to work really hard to convince a new Captain to carry enough fuel to get to Katherine if anything went wrong. He was terrified he would “be called in the office” for carrying extra fuel.

We arrived in Darwin, on short final for 11, to see a Cessna 210 brake off a wheel and spin on the runway in front of us. Going around from fifty feet, we had only seven minutes of fuel before we were committed to fly to Katherine.

Thankfully, the Cessna pilot dragged his wreck off onto the cross runway, the men in the little yellow car removed the wheel; and our passengers reached their destination.

Had my Captain taken his planned fuel, and had the Cessna suffered a more debilitating arrival; we would have had to land over the wreckage on whatever runway remained.

Fog is the enemy in Australia, a country that talks big about air safety, but only has two Cat 3B runways. When you fly into third world countries that have better facilities you wonder: “So does that make my country, Australia, the 4th, or 5th, world?”

Pilots: if they don’t give you a Lo Vis licence and Cat 3B runways, cover your backside with fuel to go somewhere else. Not 200 kgs on every flight “for Mum” (200 kgs gets you no-where and is not going to help your Mum); but enough for a realistic alternate.

And if they want to call you in the office for it, great. Get them to put it in writing. Take pics of every document, then contact Ben Sandilands or me.

We’ll make you famous for sticking-up for your passengers.
As Don Kendell once told me: “I haven’t spent 20 years building my company so you can turn a Metro into a rotary hoe, 20 miles west of Hamilton. Take The Fuel”.

He was a very wise man.

&.. the PT by-line: "..Somehow the ATSB has done a research report on the Mildura fog crisis of 2013 that doesn't mention the 737s didn't have to carry enough fuel to prevent it happening.."
Which brings me to the 'PING' moment and to where I think - -"K" is heading with his last post.

Reference a CASA project that was begun (August 2009) prior to the VH-NGA inconvenient ditch and was in response to a proposed (at the time) ICAO amendment to Annex 6 Part I. This amendment eventually came into effect on 15 November 2012: Project OS 09/13 - Fuel and Alternate requirements
 

..Civil Aviation Regulation 1988 (CAR) 234 states that it is the responsibility of the pilot-in-command and the operator of the aircraft to ensure that a flight does not commence without sufficient fuel being carried to enable the flight to be undertaken safely.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau database has provided evidence that fuel quantity issues are becoming problematic, and therefore it has been decided that action must be taken in order to address the issue specifically to account for sufficient fuel for the continuation of safe flight.

Additionally, amendment 36 to ICAO Annex 6 Part I, International Commercial Air Transport- Aeroplanes, has specific changes relating to fuel planning, in flight fuel management, selection of alternate aerodromes and extended diversion time operations (EDTO). This ICAO amendment also specifically addresses fuel and operational requirements for flights to Isolated Aerodromes.

Implementation of the ICAO amendment, either in part or in its entirety, will require CASA to identify those parts that may not be applicable to operations within the Australian aviation operating environment.

---

...While this project will focus specifically on passenger-carrying commercial flights the project will also be reviewing fuel requirements generally. The project will be conducted in four phases. The first three phases will involve amendments to the relevant Civil Aviation Order (CAO) applicable CAAP 234-1 and CAR 234...

...The amendment to the ICAO Annex 6 standards will be considered, and where appropriate, incorporated into the relevant legislation/advisory publication. In addition it is anticipated that there will be guidance material for operators who can demonstrate a particular level of performance- based compliance. The intent is to provide a bridge from the conventional approach to safety to the contemporary approach that uses process- based methods and Safety Risk Management (SRM) principles...

 
However before we begin to revisit the TOE (timeline of embuggerance) and attempt to join the dots in sequential order, I did a revisit to the ICAO ADREP/ECCAIRS database because I remembered another HCRPT min fuel occurrence (involving a VH- registered aircraft) that AP covered - ref: O&O #61 or report AO-2012-073. Unfortunately that glossed over 'serious incident' report would appear to be also lost in translation or in the cyber-verse...

Hmm...no comment - yet...


MTF...P2