[Peetwo]

THE NSW pilot/owner of a helicopter that crashed and killed three people, including himself, had previously lost his licence for dangerous flying.  

THE bodies of photographer Richard Green, his wife and graphic artist Carolyn, and documentary maker John Davis, were discovered in wreckage found on mountainous terrain in the NSW Watagans National Park, near Cessnock, on Tuesday.

In 2013 Mr Green had his licence suspended for six months after four incidents when his helicopter was at risk of colliding with other aircraft and another when he struck overhead powerlines.

The powerlines tore off part of his helicopter, but after landing and inspecting the damage Mr Green took off again, according to an Administrative Appeal Tribunal judgment.

Mr Green unsuccessfully appealed the decision on grounds it was made with "malice" and the transgressions were not serious.

A Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman said on Tuesday Mr Green was required to demonstrate his aeronautical knowledge and proficiency before the suspension was lifted in March last year...

From Planetalking & PP 2011:

CASA slapped down again for ‘persecuting’ lawful aviation

Ben Sandilands | Jun 03, 2011 4:32PM |

Plane Talking claims no credit for the following story, written by Paul Phelan and appearing recently in Aviation Advertiser.

The article is about how the safety regulator’s efforts to frame a celebrated wilderness photographer and helicopter pilot over alleged maintenance offences came undone.
It is being reproduced here because that publication isn’t on the radar of readers locked on the activities of major airlines and their regulation, or lack thereof.

Richard Green, the subject of the story, contacted us because of our earlier quizzical look at issues that critics see with CASA’s pursuit, at long last, of a completely new set of fundamental aviation regulations known as Part 91.

We think that producing a paperback sized package of prescriptive and potentially safety impinging measures to deal with the actions of pilots in an emergency that the FAA handles successfully with three paragraphs raising some pretty important questions about CASA’s approach to the industry from general aviation right up to Qantas and Virgin Australia.  We could be wrong of course, but its a discussion that ought to take place.

Here is the Aviation Advertiser story as provided by Richard Green.


Postcript: Richard Green clearly deserves an apology from CASA, and the public deserve some accountability for its disproportionate and often flawed pursuit of individual private pilots over regulatory matters, especially when it seems incapable of understanding manufacturer advice.

He has shared with us his most recent letter to the CEO of CASA, John McCormick.

Dear Mr McCormick

I refer to our earlier correspondence and our telephone conversation of nearly a year ago.  If you recall you made it quite clear that in your opinion I had operated my helicopter dangerously, and that I most certainly should not have the authority to conduct maintenance work on it.

The Senate Estimates Committee has taken some interest in these matters, and for your information I have attached a copy of a recent press article that summarises the outcome of the AAT’s detailed investigation.

After careful consideration Mike Hart had recommended an apology from CASA in relation to the former matter which, I am sure you will remember, you refused to issue. As you will be able to see from the article, perhaps an additional second apology from CASA is now in order.

What is far more important than apologies is the way in which CASA directs its efforts and public resources. CASA’s mandate is essentially to ensure safety for the travelling public.  Is it really good allocation of these resources to expend perhaps a half a million dollars of taxpayers’ funds chasing after one private pilot, who flies only about 100 hours a year and almost exclusively in wilderness areas?

I look forward to hearing your views.

Sincerely

Richard Green

As predicted from @smh:

Crashed helicopter pilot Richard Green had decade-long feud with air safety watchdogs

A wealthy pilot and landscape photographer killed when his helicopter crashed near Cessnock had been embroiled in a bitter, decade-long battle with air safety watchdogs about being allowed to do his own maintenance on the $6 million aircraft.


Richard Green, 74, his graphic artist wife Carolyn, 71, and filmmaker John Davis, 72, were killed on their way back to the northern beaches from an anti-mining festival at Breeza, near Tamworth, on Saturday.

The highly regarded environmentalists were working on a documentary capturing the environmental destruction wrought by mining.  

Killed in helicopter crash: Richard and Carolyn Green. Photo: richardgreen.net.au

Mr Green's modified Eurocopter 135, described by him as his "flying campervan", was found in rugged, bushland near Cessnock on Monday evening.
Advertisement

A witness, Jim Bloomfield, said he saw the helicopter fly into a valley near his Hunter Valley home as a severe storm rolled in on Saturday evening. He said the helicopter landed but then took off again and looked in trouble.

"I actually said to my wife I hope that guy is an instrument-rated pilot because he's in trouble if he's not," he told Sky News.

"My pride and joy": the EC135 operated by Richard Green. Photo: www.richardgreen.net.au

The experienced pilot had his license suspended for six months in 2013 over four incidents in one year where he almost collided with other aircraft and one incident in which he struck powerlines and tore off part of his helicopter.

In a submission to an air safety inquiry in 2013, Mr Green had demanded the sacking of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) board and other officials.

The submission reveals that Mr Green had been the first to import the high-performance Eurocopter into Australia and had immediately struggled to find qualified technicians to keep the machine flying. As a result he maintained it himself.

He complained bitterly about being investigated by CASA as far back in 2006 after he hit a tree branch while flying in Cape York in far north Queensland and how the incident had severely affected his authority to maintain the machine.

"I had a minor blade strike on a tree branch in a wilderness area in Cape York. In order to get the helicopter out of that location, I made a repair to the rotor blades," he wrote in the submission to the federal government's Aviation Safety Regulation Review.

"CASA's concern was not the fact I had a blade strike but what happened afterwards.

"My wife and I were stranded in the Cape York wilderness. Drawing on my training and an experienced-based evaluation, I made the sensible decision to effect a temporary repair that would permit a safe two hour flight to Cairns."

Mr Green said his alternative was to leave it "stuck in the wilderness" where it would have been difficult to repair and recover.

He said when he reported his actions to CASA an airworthiness inspector tried to revoke his pilot's licence, deeming the flight "dangerous and illegal".

He said CASA had "dramatically embellished the incident by listing a whole slew of alleged technical breaches of the regulations that flowed on from this primary incident".

Mr Green said he was required to show cause why his licence should not be revoked.

He then appealed to CASA's then head of aviation Greg Vaughan who instead increased Mr Green's authorities to conduct and certify maintenance on his helicopter.

However when the authority required renewal two years later, CASA refused to renew it.

Mr Green then successfully appealed through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. He also said he faced further allegations of safety breaches as a result of his dispute with CASA.

He lashed out at CASA, saying "in my case alone well over 1000 man hours have been expended in trying to clip the wings of one private pilot who flies his own private helicopter about 100 hours a year and almost exclusively in wilderness areas of Australia".

He finished his submission by calling for "all the senior management in CASA ... to be replaced and the CASA board disbanded".

NSW Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham said the trio "were committed environmentalists who spent their lives making amazing films and taking incredible photographs of our incredible country – and fighting tooth and nail to defend it".

"It is a very dark day for anyone who loves the environment of Australia," he said on Tuesday.

Former independent MP Tony Windsor, who spoke at the Breeza festival on Saturday and met all three crash victims, said Mr Davis, a former Greens candidate for Davidson, interviewed him that afternoon about political lobbying and mining.

"I had a long conversation with John and probably did the last interview John ever did," said Mr Windsor.

"He wanted to have a yarn on a few things, mostly the influence of paid lobbyists in Canberra, particularly in the mining sector. He gave me his card and I'd put it on the beside table."

He said the three victims were keen and passionate environmentalists.

"About 800 people came to that event over the weekend, people travelled from near and far and the three of them really represented that body of people," Mr Windsor said.

"They had come to learn about this magnificent piece of country. They went out of their way to do that so it's tragic to think [the crash] happened on the back of their concerns for other people."

The twin-turbine Eurocopter had been used by Mr Green and his wife as aerial campervan to explore Australia and as part of his photography business and hobby.

He said when he first imported the machine there was nobody in the country who had certification to maintain it and he was the only pilot in the country endorsed to fly it.

A scientist and engineer by training, Mr Green said he purchased his helicopter in the late 1990s as an early unit off the production line in Germany.

He also noted he had flown with the chief flying instructor of Eurocopter Germany.

"Based on my training and experience (after a rigorous) flight test I was given endorsement to train other pilots to fly the machine," he said. He also noted that he had a maintenance hangar at his own home.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/crashed-helicopter-pilot-richard-green-had-decadelong-feud-with-air-safety-watchdogs-20151110-gkv69j.html#ixzz3r55ZDY4Q
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

For those interested here is the Richard Green submission to the 'Pilot training' Senate Inquiry:

Dear Sirs

I write in relation to paras.(f) and (g) of this inquiry.

(f) the capacity of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to appropriately oversee and update safety regulations given the ongoing and rapid development of new technologies and skills shortages in the aviation sector;

Various communications of mine with the Director of Aviation Safety were copied to members of the Committee some months ago. These no doubt formed the basis of a question to Mr McCormick at the sitting on 21 October about a proposed apology to me. This in turn led into questions to McCormick about his dealings with the ex Industry Complaints Commissioner for CASA.

Mr McCormick’s misdirection of the Authority since he took charge has been scandalous and his untruthful answers to Senate questions are par for the course.

I had an AAT appeal running the same day as the referenced sitting. At this the McCormick supported personal attack on me by CASA was thoroughly discredited and my position fully vindicated. My own experiences with CASA provide an indication of the rot within, and can be multiplied many, many times over by the organisation's interaction with the wider aviation community.

CASA will not be capable of effectively overseeing any safety regulation until its current senior management is removed and replaced by balanced, informed and experienced individuals.

(g) the need to provide legislative immunity to pilots and other flight crew who report on safety matters and whether the United States and European approaches would be appropriate in the Australian aviation environment;


Unless there is legislative immunity safety matters will remain un-reported.
CASA has already frittered an estimated $250,000,000 on its attempt to rewrite archaic aviation regulations – all with no result. Its current management policy is for more complex unworkable legislation which maximises the number of personnel that the agency can employ.

A sweep with a completely new brush is required. The USA has a very effective and working set of regulations in place - there is absolutely no reason why we should not copy these.

Sincerely

Richard Green

 
And this was Mr Green's submission to the Forsyth (ASRR) review to which the SMH article refers:

21 Mr Richard Green - PDF: 141 KB

..As mentioned at the beginning of this submission, there have been many reports similar to mine of CASA’s misuse of its power. Most of the victims, unlike me, are dependent upon their aviation activities for their livelihoods. They therefore are intimidated into not speaking up. I have personal experience of this through my attempts to get expert witness statements to support me in my own defence. The individuals support my position, however, are not prepared to go into writing for fear of subsequent CASA retribution.


It is my firm opinion that major changes need to be made to CASA. It must be made accountable for its actions. Its focus must be changed to promoting a safety ethos within the industry, rather than merely being a short-sighted policeman only interested in chasing after regulatory infringements. It is not until these changes are apparent that the body will gain the respect that it should have within the industry.

In order for this to come about, I believe all the senior management in CASA need to be replaced and the CASA board disbanded. I believe it is critical and urgent that the chief executive needs to be replaced by an individual who can command the respect of the industry. And the Board should be reconstituted with a group of individuals who have real in-depth experience of all the major areas of the aviation industry.

A new ethos within the body driven by a strong but fair minded CEO should weed out those inspectors who have been misusing their power in order to satisfy their own personal whims.

These changes need to go hand in hand with the scrapping of Australia’s ridiculously convoluted aviation legislation. It should be replaced by legislation modelled upon a system that already works perfectly well – either from New Zealand or from the United States. Further the basic role of CASA needs to be changed to promote the aviation industry in Australia as well as ensuring its safety. CASA’s current charter, just to ensure aviation safety, is being achieved by grounding aircraft and closing down aviation businesses...

MTF...P2