The pilot of the Pel-Air Westwind that crashed off Norfolk Island on Wednesday apparently took off with inadequate fuel supplies. He, and his airline, must be prosecuted.
CASA
Credibility of Qantas on line over “unusual vibrations” aka a flaming engine
The scorched engine at the centre of the latest allegations about safety standards at Qantas is now being examined by the independent air safety investigator, and the credibility of two unions, the airline’s management and the air safety regulation enforce are all on the line.
Safety screwed over wrong washer
The aircraft engineers union is pursuing claims that Qantas avoided a detailed safety investigation of a 747 last year, which could have caused some of its engines to fall off in flight.
Memo CASA chief: an uncritical media is not your friend
The underlying managerial culture of modern enterprises is to push productivity to within a millimetre of breaking the people or the equipment, and to lift output year in year out. Unfortunately in the airline game, that can kill hundreds of people at once.
CASA, Qantas and the documents they don’t want you to see
CASA is confident about Qantas safety, but if that’s the case, show us the documents.
Plan to cut cabin crew ratios sneaks under the radar
A CASA working party is considering a submission to reduce the number of cabin crew on Australian airline services as a cost cutting method. However, this is a safety issue.
Union had better back big safety claims against Qantas
Did Qantas last June allow a Boeing 767 which had experienced severe turbulence before landing at Cairns continue its journey without completing all of the mandatory inspections required?
CASA gives the NSW Police Integrity Commission dark powers
The NSW Police Integrity Commission can now pursue crooked NSW cops with NSW Police helicopters and small aircraft at night without lights.
CASA air safety and regulation ruin
Air safety and its regulation in FNQ have been in disgrace for years, writes Ben Sandilands.
No life jackets for Palm Island flight. Where’s CASA?
Why does CASA tolerate for even another minute the regular carriage of passengers by air to Palm Island over 55 kilometres of open water without life jackets?
ICAO audit reveals Australia’s third world skies
The deficiencies found in CASA air safety oversight by the ICAO audit are sufficient for the US Federal Aviation Administration to downgrade Australia’s rating under its International Aviation Safety Assessment program to Level 2, the same as Indonesia.
Damning audit slams CASA’s safety record
The world’s peak aviation safety organisation has told Canberra that CASA is inept.
Planes flying blind at regional airports
Australia has tolerated, at airline insistence, the criminally insane mixing of scheduled passenger aircraft and smaller objects, writes Ben Sandilands.
NY plane crash: Don’t study the safety card
There is something about single aisle jets like the one that splashed down on New York’s Hudson River today that you are never told in safety briefings, writes Ben Sandilands.
Out of control: The air traffic staffing crisis
Months after airliners began to lose a reliable air traffic control system in Australia, the air safety regulator has done nothing to enforce rules about staffing levels, writes Ben Sandilands.
Newcastle’s skies safe (well, safer) thanks to federal intervention
Joel Fitzgibbon and Anthony Albanese ditched CASA’s supposedly ‘safe’ Newscastle airport arrangements overnight, writes Ben Sandilands.
Qantas CEO glosses over airline’s safety record
Having amnesia about the true and documented state of affairs at Qantas is not going to help CEO Alan Joyce, writes Ben Sandilands.
Everybody loves a global financial crisis
In many sectors we have set up regulation to eventually fail, due either to lily-livered regulators or the failure of politicians to provide the requisite regulatory tools. It’s the Australian way, writes Bernard Keane.
CASA Qantas audit supressed … QF30 ricochet revealed
The CASA special audit of Qantas has been completed and will be suppressed on the grounds of being ‘commercial in confidence’, writes Ben Sandilands.
Rationing the skies
So much for ‘renegade’ air traffic controllers causing chaos in the skies, writes Ben Sandilands.
Qantas special investigation just more CASA spin?
The CASA special investigation of Qantas could be seen as a rediscovery of its legal obligations to adequately monitor, audit and enforce compliance with safety regulations. Or it could be seen as more spin, writes Ben Sandilands.
CASA monitors ATC, calls for radar replay
It would appear that CASA has finally been “pushed” into reviewing TIBA (Traffic Information Broadcast Areas). And they were shocked at the results, writes an air traffic control insider.
CASA in flames
Already in the news after its belated grounding of Torres Strait carrier Aero Tropics on Friday, CASA will be under scrutiny in the Senate this week as well.
Yogyakarta Airport in safety breach when Garuda jet crashed
Investigations by an aviation auditing firm has discovered that Yogyakarta Airport was unlicensed when a Garuda jet crashed there on 7 March 2007 killing 21 people including five Australians, writes Ben Sandilands.
Qantas braces for safety compliance shut downs
No-one is putting hard figures on this, but Qantas faces widespread safety compliance enforced shut downs of its inter-city services by the end of this week unless it resolves its dispute with the maintenance union, writes Ben Sandilands.
