[Kharon]

Bus stop wars.

Mr Dolan: We thought it was more effective to ask Airservices to take a look at the tapes and to provide us with their view as to whether there had been a loss of separation assurance.

I like this, it’s like asking Ronald Biggs to investigate the great train robbery and expecting him to return a written, signed confession.

Senator WILLIAMS: How long would it take you to look at what Senator Xenophon is requesting? How long would it take you to look at that information? A couple of hours?

Mr Dolan: Possibly. It would need to be done by someone with air traffic control experience so that they could understand it, and we have a range of priorities that we have got our limited air traffic control expertise focused on. This is a matter of the management of limited resources.

An excuse almost as plausible as being unable to retrieve the black box from NGA because of OH&S concerns.  If this department cannot or, more likely cares not to properly investigate ‘safety’ matters, the QoN should be asking ‘what’s the point in having it’.  ATSB a black hole in the public safety constellation.

Senator XENOPHON: Could you please, Chief Commissioner, take on notice whether the ATSB will be taking this matter any further, at the very least, to look at the WebTrak for that three-hour period out of the Essendon and Melbourne airports, and also whether it would look at radar tapes? Also, it appears, from what has been put to me, that there is a fundamental issue that Airservices did not give you the full story initially.

Mr Dolan: In terms of not being informed of a three-hour period, that is true.

Senator XENOPHON: Does that not worry you, Mr Dolan?

Nothing seems to worry Beaker, least of all Nick Xenophon who is treated with a surly disrespect and not quite open contempt.  Teflon Beaker.

Mr Godley: Could I just clarify something, Senator? We did have one of our air traffic control investigators review the whole three hours. What happened was that after the repcon we got back to Airservices. They reviewed the tapes and said there was no loss of separation or loss of separation assurance. Our ATC investigator then reviewed the three hours. She determined that there was a potential loss of separation between two aircraft. But, due to the limitations of WebTrak, she could not be sure.

How FFS can anyone rest until they were 100%, certain sure, with empirical evidence to support that there was no risk; "She could not be sure" is no where near good enough, not by a long shot. The highlighted sentences should be ringing some bloody great big alarm bells; read it again and think on, then read the ATSB contribution to the bust stop wars.

The ATSB does not intend taking any further action on this matter, noting that an ATSB air traffic control specialist did review the WebTrak information for the entire period following receipt of the REPCON and that the ATSB is satisfied with the response provided by both Airservices Australia and CASA to the REPCON report (seehttp://www.atsb.gov.au/repcon/2013/ar201300090.aspx).

Then CASA get to play with the traffic:-

We note that there was no loss of separation and CASA does not intend to take any direct safety action with regard to this matter; however CASA will use this information to complement other information that informs us of Airservices Australia safety risk profile.

ASA says “all good” so we’ll just create a bit more ass covering paper-work and spin it up a bit.

The incident highlighted an opportunity for introducing improvements to documentation and procedures which were subsequently implemented. The recording was kept for 30 days while the reviews were concluded, however other data, including some radar positions which allow the detail of the event to be reviewed, was retained

Then a short backtrack:-

Yes, CASA will be looking beyond what was looked at in the response to Question on Notice 174 from the Additional Estimates 2014-15, regarding Cirrus Report #ATS-0125061.

ASA says “all good” so we’ll just create a bit more ass covering paper-work and spin it up a bit.

CASA was satisfied with the information provided by Airservices at the time in relation to the REPCON on the incident, and as no Loss of Separation (LOS) or Loss of Separation Assurance (LOSA) was reported by Airservices or through the Cirris database, CASA did not require further explanation.

And for a finale:-

It is not an offence to fail to report an unknown loss of separation. CASA would be unable to review the radar tapes due to the time elapsed since the incident.

Then, it was Hoody’s turn to throw the other kids under the bus”

This incident was reported and reviewed in accordance with Airservices’ normal safety management processes. The incident highlighted an opportunity for introducing improvements to documentation and procedures which were subsequently implemented.

The recording was kept for 30 days while the reviews were concluded, however other data, including some radar positions which allow the detail of the event to be reviewed, was retained.

Would you stand at a bus stop with any of these characters behind you?  Aye, the wheels surely do go round – and around and around.

Honk honk.

Notice the kid symbols painted on the side; like in WW II, they painted bombs and aircraft symbols - as a record of 'kills'; I like the grey beard helping the pink pig on board - sinister....