the capricorn helicopter rescue service is an aoc holder not a distributor of funds and at no time have they ever put any pressure on their pilots to go. i doubt that a high time pilot would be influenced in this way. if he or she is so influenced then they are the wrong people for the job.
the previous operator of the capricorn service hired on behalf of the board was an aoc holder and was the operator when the first longranger exploded when the oxygen bottle ignited and the second longrager crashed in fog.
since then they obtained their own aoc and kept the same crew members operating the 407.
neither of the accidents were tasked by the aoc holding board members.
the pilot is the final arbitrator at all times and sometimes the decision making becomes emotive rather than practical and i am sure that the person who thinks that i am insulting to ems pilots would be very insulted if he was told he was not to make the hard decisions about a flight at midnight on a black night 130 nautical over water.
i am not being insulting in any way nor did i mean to be. if you take offence at the avoidable loss of life and machinery i'm sorry.
i am sure all or most of you ems pilots on hearing of the accidents and the conditions that they took place would have raised your eyebrows just a bit.
at no time did i say that all ems pilots work on the hero factor, what i am trying to point out is that there does not seem to be any conditions that preclude a lets go factor, in one type of operation, by some pilots, specifically private ems operators.
on pilot told me that he decides when it's too black or too wet once he is on route.
if this is considered good policy by the majority of ems/rescue pilots i'll be amazed.
most ems/rescue services have dispensations against cao 48 because of the nature of the job and this is quite understandable as you have to be on call or duty for long periods.
what of the private rescue pilot that is tasked for a photo job or sling job or another type of aerial work during this dispensation.
they swing from one set of flight and duty times to another even though once you revert to the higher category that is where you are supposed to stay. on many occassions pilots are put under pressure to do this extracurricular activity and then conduct the rescue role later in the night.
you can look them up in the yellow pages.
if the rules and regs that we are supposed to abide by are flaunted so easily, sometimes on a daily basis, why isn't it fair to assume that these pilots will do any job that comes along.
as for basi they were once held in high esteem by the worlds aviation community for the famous crash comic the aviation safety digest but as time has passed and severe cuts take place they are down to a few good men and women.
if you look at the helicopter statistics over the last ten years you will note at the bottom of the page that most were not formally investigated or no onsite investigation took place. i have most of the australian helicopter accidents on file and some are severly lacking.
even if they had been investigated the people involved have little knowledge of helicopters and how they operate, the information is usually passed to them by fax from the pilot and that is the end of it.
you can obtain accident reports if you ask for them from basi now the atsb. i am certain they are available on the net.