I watched the whole thing (okay, so I was bored).
Notably -
- The initial matter raised by Senator McDonald sounds like somebody operating charter without an AOC, although no detail was given. CASA could have done a much better job of answering that;
- Rex's "just culture" does not seem to align with industry norms, but does not seem to be ringing any bells with CASA;
- Senator Patrick was under the mistaken belief that a Bell 412 is a single-engine helicopter. Perhaps more concerning is that the CASA Executive Manager, National Operations and Standards (Chris Monahan) also did not seem to have any idea;
- The only credible CASA officer was the bloke who answered Senator Roberts question regarding exclusion from safety-sensitive activities after receiving a Covid vaccination;
- The alleged incident (raised by Senator Roberts) where a domestic crew shut down both engines in flight after receiving Covid vaccinations sounds apocryphal to me.
The whole performance generally reflected poorly on both legislators and regulators.