Letter to Ombudsman Office 28/03/23
Dear Ombudsman's Office,
In your correspondence dated 8th February, the correspondence stated "Part of your complaint was that you believed APTA was treated unfairly and differently to other Flight Training Organisations (FTO’s). You told us that there are other FTO’s operating under the umbrella of a third-party AOC. At the conclusion of my review, I asked questions of CASA about this issue as part of my further inquiries for the purpose of obtaining assurance APTA wasn’t treated unfairly. "
As you are aware, I have claimed that CASA has misled the Ombudsman's office on five separate issues. In this correspondence, I would like to address only the issue mentioned above.
I think that this matter is perhaps the single most important matter that needs to be resolved in my mind.
As you are aware, and drawing on my 25 years experience in the industry, there is no doubt that this was completely standard industry practice, with formal CASA approval. I provided you numerous examples including the fact that both Ballarat aero Club and Latrobe Valley Aero Club had operated under such an arrangement with other Operators up until the day before that they joined APTA. I provided another example that Moorabbin Flying Services had operated under the same arrangement with Moorabbin Aviation Services, and The Peninsula Aero Club has an ongoing CASA approved arrangement with the Latrobe Valley Aero Club. There are many more examples throughout Australia, although I will refer only to these in this correspondence.
I was concerned that a matter that should be so easy to confirm remains unconfirmed after more than 4 years of the ongoing investigation.
CASAs position was that it was never permitted and the initial correspondence from CASA in October 2018, confirmed CASAs position.
Please be assured that i am not asking for the Ombudsman Office to reopen the investigation, and to be frank, I very much regret involving the Ombudsman's Office in this matter.
However, it is important that the Ombudsman's Office confirms whether CASA never permitted such an arrangement or whether CASA has always and on every occasion permitted such an arrangement.
May I respectfully request that once the Ombudsman's Office has ascertained whether the arrangement was never permitted or it was always permitted, could I respectfully request that you advise me of such.
Thankyou in anticipation of your assistance.
Respectfully, Glen Buckley