Dick Smith Answers Critics
Chance would be a fine thing…
Breath-taking in his scope for undermining a profession which has as its primary aim safety, a profession of whom Dick accuses each and every member of sticking too closely to the rules, Dick has trumped us all with his statements of the past 24 hours. Rarely have I seen such skilled twisting of facts to push an argument. Dick accuses controllers of deliberately and recklessly applying the rules he forced upon us, in accordance with the approved procedures, and thereby endangering the lives of the travelling public. Not satisfied with impugning the controller involved in the Maroochydore incident of the 7th of this month, he then asserts that the same thing was deliberately done in Melbourne. Does Dick really mean to imply that this is industrial action in some way being targeted at Virgin by asserting that “…QANTAS does about 70% of the flying, but they’ve had none of these near miss records.” (from his interview on 4BC today, 15 April)
Here we have experienced controllers performing their duties not as they wish but in accordance with the reforms that Mr. Smith is adamant Australia must have. Traffic (in the Maroochydore case) was passed not once but three times. It would have been much easier to separate but this is “over-servicing” and “restricting” traffic that can “safely self separate” according to the level of activity in accordance with “world’s best practice”. The fact of the matter is that the controllers involved were gravely concerned and did significantly more than Dick would have us do if the model was followed to the letter. Dick blatantly asserts that we could have restricted the Virgin jet until safely past – this is what they would have done in the US. Yes Dick, this does happen in the US because they don’t comply with the procedures you insist we must follow. This is just what we would do as well if you allowed it. It’s exactly what we did do before November 27 2003. What we’re supposed to do is advise the IFR aircraft of known VFR traffic and let it go – whilst giving updates – just what we did.
Dick levels his attack at an individual controller implying criminal behaviour, and at the Air Traffic Controller’s Association (Civilair) because of their apparent anti-progress stance. Dick asserts that the reticence of the industry to support the reforms is about protectionism and union militancy. Us arguing about who was on the ARG with Dick is like worrying about what the source of the Titanic iceberg was. It’s largely irrelevant. The ship is sinking and one name keeps coming up.
Dick argues the make-up of the ARG specifically excluded representation of professional Air Traffic Controllers and Commercial Pilots because they are resistant to change. Does anyone recall the origin of the term “group think” and the Bay of Pigs fiasco. We’re going to reform airspace so we’d better get a group together and exclude representation of commercial pilots and all the Air Traffic controllers. We’ll leave it to the military and private pilots. (Note: I personally believe that Angus Houston is a “professional” pilot but certainly not commercial)
Dick has been driving this reform for the past 13 years by his own admission. You may recall the phrase “affordable safety”, or perhaps remember the “…Halls of Doom” tome penned by our beloved patron Saint of adventure. I’m not an admirer of Dick’s aviation management skills but realise that the carefully crafted, lovable larrikin, sometimes eccentric millionaire adventurer thing does get you a lot of airplay and (apparently) the ear of the government. Dick plays the “one man against the machine of bureaucracy” card on a regular basis and wields a significant amount of power whether he’s willing to admit it or not. The great unwashed public will get a huge media spray because if nothing else, Dick is always controversial. The response from the Airservices puppets and the very reasoned press releases from the unions won’t get diddly squat unless they are prepared to get into a slanging match with Dick. Dick as a media manipulator is unsurpassed.
So what are WE going to do? We have one individual who seems to be able to constantly garner unwarranted media attention to push his personal barrow against the tide of reason from all corners of the industry. Time and time again he ends up in positions of considerable influence and every time it goes belly up it’s everyone else’s fault for not “getting” his personal vision. The time has come to stop the madness. Please stop the world; I want Dick to get off.
PS 400' and 0.4nm from radar tape replay