Dear Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office,
I have recently had the opportunity to talk with a current CASA employee who has offered to tell the truth on the matter.
CASA have lead the Ombudsman’s Office to be of the view that CASA were not aware of APTAs structure until October 2018, when they declared it unlawful, and closed my business down.
The truth is that there was an extensive process requiring an investment of many hundreds of thousands of dollars, and extensive CASA consultation and formal approval, auditing, interviews of Key Personnel etc
It is deceptive if CASA have led the Ombudsman’s office to believe that CASA first became aware of APTAs structure in October 2018.
The truth is that CASA was fully aware, and fully involved in the development of the business structure over the two years leading up to its revalidation.
During the initial concept stages when I was planning to significantly expand on what I had been doing for many years previously, i.e., a multi base multi entity structure, I approached CASA prior to undertaking the Project and I approached my CASA CMT, being the Certificate Management Team that was oversighting my organisation.
I have spoken to XXXXX XXXXXXX a Flight Operations Inspector of many years’ experience and approximately 10 years as the primary contact within CASA for my flying school, Melbourne Flight Training. Mr. XXXXX is a current CASA employee, so the correct protocols will need to be followed should you elect to contact him.
Mr. XXXXXX recollection is very clear of an after hours meeting that was held at my Flying School Melbourne Flight Training (MFT), discussing the expansion of the concept that I was already doing, and had been doing for many years, admittedly on a larger scale.
He has a clear recollection of meetings at the flying school discussing the expansion of the multi base, multi entity structure. Whilst he would have to refer to his notes, extensive conversations were held around this concept prior to June of 2016. He was fully aware of the proposed expansion to the existing structure.
I would highly recommend Mr XXXXXX XXXXXXX as a highly respected, and highly experienced Flight Operations Inspector, and spent many years as the first point of contact within my business, almost from its inception a decade earlier.
He will be able to provide expert witness against the extent of CASAs involvement in absolutely every respect of APTA.
Importantly Mr XXXXXXX will also be able to shed light on the “Temporary Base” procedure. The procedure that we used to induct new bases was the Temporary Locations Procedure.
This was not our intended procedure to introduce new bases. The procedure was recommended to us by CASA to be used for exactly the procedure it was intended. In this correspondence, I will not recount the story in its entirety here, although I would draw your attention to Pprune Post #46
Glen Buckley and Australian small business -V- CASA - Page 3 - PPRuNe Forums, where I have explained in detail this matter. It was actually FOI Inspector XXXX XXXX who suggested the procedure in the presence of another CASA employee, for the use of the Temporary Base procedure.
It does not seem at all reasonable that the very procedure that CASA recommended to me, provided guidance on, approved, audited, and then CASA used that procedure to fully approve our first two Members, and then over two years later does a complete reversal, advises that the procedure they advised me to use for the exact situation becomes illegal, and the basis for declaring all flying schools, including my own flying school of 10 years, “unauthorised”. I very much depended on CASA for their guidance, accepted it, and then its declared illegal by CASA years later, as one of the fundamental reasons for closing several businesses down including those businesses that had been approved by CASA well over a year prior.
Thankyou for considering this additional and important witness as part of your investigation.
I have received the correspondence from your office, asking that I refrain from contacting your Office. Please accept this last witness. Several other witnesses that have pertinent information in this investigation have come forward, and should you feel it worthwhile, I would appreciate the opportunity to introduce those current and past CASA personnel ads well.
Thankyou for your consideration, respectfully.
Glen Buckley