The melodrama plays out in our national capital – another aviation inquiry. This time its the Norfolk Island ditching. Lets hope that the inquiry gets to the root causes of this accident so as to prevent future aviation accidents of this nature. That said, I do not expect any radical change to the way the industry is regulated or the safety investigation regime.
A perusal of the Hansard makes for interesting reading but what is just as interesting, and even more so if you know the personalities and politics, are the supplementary submissions. Between ruffled feathers and guffs that need correction, there is quite a bit of emotional and physical energy being expended.
It would appear to me that as in any multi-party system the deficiencies are spread around and one would hope that this inquiry identifies real safety hot spots and sees them addressed.
In my view there are four key issues;
• The regulatory framework and oversight process
• The Company’s responsibilities
• The situations faced and subsequent decisions of the flight crew
• The rigour of the ATSB report.
On the last point; it’s been a long time since the ATSB has come under such scrutiny and in retrospect; the storm clouds had been building for years.
I am not going (and far be it for me) to pass judgement on any party, but rather ask the penultimate question. Prior to about 1990 (if my memory serves me correctly), Norfolk and Lord Howe and probably other remote islands required a mainland alternate regardless of the weather conditions.
What were the reasons for this requirement to be removed and what risk controls were supposed to address the obvious risk of the aerodrome becoming unavailable for a landing? Why weren’t these controls adopted?
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