The Civil Aviation Safety Authority today hit out at its critics - declaring Australia still has an air safety system which is the envy of the rest of the world.
Independent statistics show it is twice as safe to fly on a scheduled airline flight in Australia than Europe or North America.
Figures also show there has been a 42 per cent drop in total aviation accident rates over the last ten years, with improvements in almost every area of flying.
Folks,
I remember this all to well, CASA/Toller misquoted a Boeing study, the Boeing figures were not for Australia, but for Oceania, and, in the Australian case, helpfully excluded all the Australian RPT accidents, fatal or otherwise.
The statement prompted a detailed study being delivered to the then Minister, John Anderson, showing that the actual figures, using ICAO definitions, had an Australian GA accident rate double US, and an airline accident rate more than 3 times US.
The Minister was so disturbed by the study, he had it sent to the NTSB for comment. The NTSB answer was words, the equivalent of: " Of course it's correct, it is assembled from publicly available data".
Since then, the differential between GA in US and AU has deteriorated, much of the difference is the steady improvement in the US. There has been no such steady improvement in Australia.
Tootle pip!!