Stink Finger
With respect
Why would Les allow himself to be the scape goat for the time frame for the introduction of EGPWS, if he said " Yes, EGPWS would have probably evaded this accident", ever heard the term duty of care, someone would certainly be throwing those words at Les in a witness box.
5 years is plenty of time and if the aircraft in question was "new" into Australia, were there aircraft in the US market with it already installed? There seem to be many (maybe the other 58 in Oz) either already equipped or retroed.
In any event the status would have been known and the installation a priority perhaps even during the C of A. Dollars.
It's the difference between proactive and reactive safety management.
It is within the power of CASA to regulate the specification of "new" additions before a C of A is issued, such that it must comply with current and future known requirements prior.
"Duty of care" is here a two edged sword, a court would very quickly decide which edge was the sharper. The Chief Pilot of such an organisation should know very well how it works. I could not determine it from the programme but it is even possible that other aircraft in the fleet have already been operating with it.
You can't have it both ways.
IMHO on the balance of probabilities an EGPWS WOULD have prevented this accident, assuming the crew were not totally negligent.
Probing deeper, the comments on the 4 Corners Forum and elsewhere, confirm an aerodynamic observation of the type as being "difficult to handle with a narrow band of flight parameters". We could simply start with the wing and power loading. The aircraft started out as a Queen Air, the MTOW is now close to double.
Why then no autopilot? Dollars?.
I know the answer but it is not the point. Most new FBW airline aircraft simply could not be flown without computer intervention and that's dollars but dollars spent on making them more efficient.
In this case given the above an autopilot should be mandated.
Shades of the time CAA/CASA permitted <5700kg turbine aircraft to NOT carry radar, I think at the time because of operators cries of the "cost" of repair and maintenance. Dollars?
How do you safely and efficiently operate a turbine without radar?
I guess this is the "affordable safety" process in action.
