Botero, you say:
Dick what is your agenda here?
My agenda is straightforward if you will open your mind. That is, to get proper procedures introduced into Australia so aircraft do not have to flight plan unnecessarily around military airspace. I can afford the added cost of the holding – many can’t.
It is not covered by the BASI report but I was told at the time that the pilot would have known that the chance of getting a VFR clearance through that airspace was almost nil.
ForkTailedDrKiller, I’m not giving ATC a serve at all. I’m giving a serve to the people who are in charge of bringing in modern airspace and procedures into Australia. I have been told a number of times by senior military people that they agree that the procedures are out of date and they have informed me that the procedures would be updated. These people were fibbing as there has been no measurable change.
People lost their lives in this horrific accident and it could happen again tomorrow because most VFR pilots coming in from the north would not even dare to request a clearance through the Williamtown zone.
Of course, you cannot fly the VFR lane under Night VFR procedures.
Why has no effort been made to locate the plane and recover the pilots so the relatives can have closure? Surely they must have a pretty exact radar position on where the plane went down.
I also point out that the pilot had a senior commercial licence and over 3,000 hours.