Quote Hamley “CASA staff were present for the briefing conducted the night before the activity, in which the conduct of orbits was described.”
Report says CASA said they were unaware of intention to conduct orbits. What were the reps at the briefing being paid for?”
Could be a pivotal point, perhaps overlooked, and, as reported, that passengers were not supposed to be carried on airshow demonstration flights.
There can be a perfectly human nature factor of excitement in the unusual circumstances of an airshow where there’s a large audience. Hstory shows clearly that this factor coupled with unplanned manoeuvres can cause accidents. The Mustang loss years ago at an airshow at Mangalore for example, or a similar stall at Berwick (Vic) which claimed two lives for another example.
As for CASA’s involvement they could be a reserve of helpful advice and reminders of aspects to be guarded against. Unfortunately the wrong model of governance set up of CASA and the resultant distrust from years of mismanagement of the regulatory and administrative environment all conspire to thwart a reasonable and rational dialogue between government and the aviation industry.
in regard to Lead Ballon’s pessimism, which is most understandable, the governments we get are those that we vote for and much maligned politicians are ordinary Australians. The National sport of denigrating our representatives is just counterproductive, if as much effort went towards continually engaging with them we could be in a better position. Many have put to me the hopelessness of trying to influence our MPs, but we now have a number who are beginning to get the message as never before. Senators Susan McDonald and Rex Patrick are leaders in this and there are others. We should support them, ring write contact your local MP and State Senators with that message.