CASA takes health check
Fri "The Australian"
CASA takes health check
Steve Creedy
January 14, 2005
THE Civil Aviation Safety Authority will review its medical certification standards to ensure they meet international benchmarks after a heart attack was blamed for a fatal air crash involving a family of five.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau recommended a review of the standards after it found pilot Gerald Mall, who held a valid medical certificate, probably had a heart attack prior to the accident.
Mall, his wife Caroline, son David, 10, and daughters Amy, 7, and Elysse, 5, died when their twin-engine Piper Aztec crashed near Mareeba in Queensland in October 2003.
The Sydney family had been holidaying in northern Queensland in the newly purchased plane and had arrived in Mareeba a few days before the accident.
Witnesses said the aircraft started to bank left shortly after taking off from the Mareeba airstrip. The bank gradually steepened until the aircraft crashed and burst into flames.
An ATSB report released yesterday said witnesses close to the aerodrome described noises consistent with normal operation.
Although much of the aircraft was destroyed by fire, investigators were unable to find any pre-existing defects that might have contributed to the accident.
However, a post-mortem examination of Mall identified significant narrowing of the coronary arteries in the pilot, who held a valid medical certificate.
"The reason for loss of control could not be conclusively established. However the circumstances of the accident and the available evidence was consistent with pilot incapacitation associated with coronary heart disease," the report said.
Investigators said they could not rule out the possibility that an event such as a cabin door opening or a bird strike had caused a heart attack.
CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the authority's screening regime for heart problems took into account a range of factors recognised by the medical fraternity as predictors of heart attacks.
He said this was constantly reviewed against medical research and best practice around the world.
"We will review the heart attack criteria in the light of this report but, probably more importantly, in the light of continuing research into cardiac health issues in the medical world in general," he said.
=========================================