I believe that it became increasingly obvious to CASA that their arguments around the temporary locations and aviation ruling were not valid, and in fact quite embarrassing.
CASA had now realised that in fact the Aviation Ruling did not apply, and in fact the procedure we used for Temporary locations were in fact, their own procedure. Further to that, we had actually substantially documented and submitted procedures to CASA that far exceeded their requirements of us. The direction then moved off in a different direction, and the previous concerns were “parked” by CASA.
20/11/18 - The line of attack moved to a new topic. Now it was the audit results from the Latrobe Valley audit. This was identified by the Regional Manager Mr David Jones as a Level 2 audit. Let me provide a further chronological timeline, lets start at the beginning.
03/09/18 - CASA conduct the level 2 audit at LTV. CASA conducted an Exit Meeting as they are required to in their own procedures. The verbal Exit Meeting should be followed up by a matching written report, and we were advised of such. There were no safety or regulatory concerns expressed. We acted immediately on the minor points raised and awaited the written report from CASA as promised. Those related to contextualising our exams for Latrobe Valley
05/09/18 - CASA conducted the level 2 audit at BLT. CASA conducted an Exit Meeting as they are required to in their own procedures. The verbal Exit Meeting is supposed to be followed up by a matching written report, and we were advised of such. There were no safety or regulatory concerns expressed. We acted immediately on the minor points raised and awaited the written report from CASA as promised.
23/10/18 - In fact the next written notification we received from CASA was notification from CASA of intention to bring a cessation to APTA operations
18/11/18 Meeting at CASA Regional Office highlighted that CASA had not provided written audit report as advised, and importantly required. They failed to meet their obligations under Administrative Law. CASA made commitment to provide those audit results. At that meeting the Regional Manager confirmed that it was in fact a level 2 audit was conducted. The Regional Manager at that meeting, expressed the CASA concern that there were incorrect and outdated Latrobe Valley forms everywhere. Interestingly that was a new topic not raise at the verbal debrief on site at LTV on the day, and that complaint did not resurface in the subsequently produced audit results. It made me feel that he was somewhat clutching at straws, so to speak.
20/11/18 - In the contents of an email, Mr David Jones stated that “the assessment of the Latrobe Valley Aero Club was used as the basis of seeking CASA legal advice…” I question how the audit results can be used by CASA to shut down my operation without me having had the “right of reply”.
24/11/18 - CASA provided the audit results. These results differed entirely from the verbal debrief and contained several
new and substantive allegations that had
not been raised before. These included breaches of - CASR 141.310, CASR 142.390, and CASR 117. I had not previously been made aware of these and am strongly of the opinion that this was a breach of administrative law/natural justice/procedural fairness. How could these audit results be used as the basis of legal action if I had not had the opportunity to respond. How could completely new allegations occur? I strongly refute those allegations and have made repeated requests to get the supporting evidence.
CASA have consistently and repeatedly ignored all requests for the specifics of the breech. I am strongly of the opinion that they cannot be substantiated, and therefore no matter how many requests I make, they will never be able to address the outstanding allegations.
Also, I point out that I requested the audit results be provided in the standard format that CASA provides to other Operators, as it had been identified as a level 2 audit. In CASAs own procedures they nominate identified issues as either a Safety Alert, Safety Finding, or Safety Observation. On hindsight I appreciate that would not be practical, as I don’t believe any concerns raised by CASA have anything to do with safety, therefore CASA is unable to produce their audit in the standard format.
Now CASA alleged breaches of CASR 141.310 (1),(5) and (6) and CASR 142.390 (1),(5), and (6):
http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_reg/casr1998333/s141.310.html
http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_reg/casr1998333/s142.390.html CASA also alleged a breach of CASR 117. That is also a ludicrous statement and frequent requests to have clarification of this have been totally ignored.
Regarding this allegation CASA referred to the Latrobe valley Website. I am unable to identify the breech when I go to the website. I have asked CASA to identify the “offending page”. This simple 30 second task has not been attended to by CASA despite repeated requests over many months. It is impossible for me to reply to the audit and finalise the matter if CASA steadfastly refuse to provide the supporting evidence, and help me resolve their perceived issues.
28/11/18 The Regional Manager now raises completely new allegations and substantial allegations that differ to the original allegations made on site at Ballarat and Latrobe , which differed to the allegations made at our meeting, which differed to the allegations made in writing. The new allegations were about flight and duty times, and in an email he stated;“
These anomalies should be known by Ermin (as the APTA HOO) as there were problems identified with the FSM system and Flight and Duty (F&D) management, in particular associated to the F&D exceedances”.
On receipt of that email I immediately knew that it was a false statement and that it should be known to be untruthful at the time of writing. Despite numerous requests to have those allegations substantiated with any evidence, none will be forthcoming as it was a blatant untruth. My concerns being that once again it appeared the Regional Manager was trying to “paint a picture.” He also cast aspersions on my HOO by stating “should be known by Ermin”. CASA had not sent any audit results, so how could he possibly know!
The deficiency was on CASAs behalf, not ours!
05/12/18 I wrote to Regional Manager David Jones requesting substantiation of false allegations
05/12/18 Out of frustration at my inability to get the original audit results provided to me by CASA I made a request under FOI to try and obtain my audit results. CASA determined that I was not entitled to those and I was provided with a completely redacted statement that was of no value to me at all. I subsequently appealed that decision and that appeal was also rejected. Still to date, I have not been able to get access to the audit results and their associated notes from the day of the audit. I have only had access to notes written up
after it was identified that notes had not been provided, and these contain completely new allegations of regulatory breaches. I have made at least 5 requests on these to resolve them and CASA have steadfastly refused to respond to my requests for assistance.
So CASA when you try and tell me that you are supporting APTA, please excuse me if I seem somewhat bemused by that assertion.
Quite seriously, an impossible situation to be in, and I have made two further requests over the last week, and like all the other requests, completely ignored. Where to next, thers so much good stuff, but alas I need to head home to the family. Will give me a bit of time to work out which topic next.