Spaghetti Monster
This is about people’s lives.
Can’t you see this is about Australian families who are going to die because they are forced to hold in their aircraft at low levels over rough oceans. Surely something has to be done.
In relation to the military procurement statement - have you looked into the ‘purchase’ of the 1960s helicopters that I understand are now sitting in a hangar in Nowra. Who in their right mind would order a 30 year old second hand machine and then try to update it to modern standards, suggesting that such an order was ‘competent’.
Harangued air traffic control into getting my own way.
Spaghetti Monster, this has nothing to do with ‘getting my own way’. I can afford the unnecessary holding and as I have a twin engined machine, in the unlikely event of an engine failure, my family and I will most likely live. As recently as Australia Day the military rules resulted in the unnecessarily holding of a single engined aircraft over the ocean nine miles away from the airport. Surely something has to be done.
Rather than debating the issue i.e. why the rules aren’t updated so that the risky low level holding does not occur, you attack me in relation to something that I am supposed to have done as CASA Chairman. If what you are saying is true it would have been on the front page of every newspaper in Australia. I have spent 15 years on this safety problem in relation to military airspace – doing this behind the scenes. There is no doubt I have been lied to. I won’t say ‘fib’ this time, I will say ‘lie’ because that is the fact. You don’t seem to realise that this is a matter of life or death. To hold single engined aircraft and force them to go at low level over the ocean is nothing short of criminal.
Have you seen the Angel Flight ads? I am now going to prepare a set of similar announcements for television which show clearly the danger that these military people are forcing on civilian pilots and their families. Hopefully these television announcements exposing the outrageous ignorance of these people may result in change which will prevent unnecessary deaths. By the way the announcements will be absolutely accurate. They will show the recreation of a pilot being forced to hold over the ocean in good weather conditions risking his and his family’s life. Also the military will be able to get onto a Current Affair or the 7.30 Report and explain why they do this.
Spaghetti Monster, you make no comment at all about the small Cessna that ditched in the ocean at Port Stephens. Luckily the lone pilot survived. Isn’t that warning enough for you? By the way, what do you think a pilot is supposed to do when ordered to hold at 500 feet remaining over water up to one nautical mile from the coast. Do you actually expect a low-time pilot to call ATC and say ‘this is not acceptable due to the fact that my family and I may die’.
I am so angry about this, I am now obtaining legal advice on what action can be taken through the Federal Court to force these people in the Airforce to treat human life with its true value. Twenty five years of a totally unnecessary holding of single engined aircraft over rough oceans is clearly unacceptable because when the inevitable fatalities occur, watch them all run for cover and say it wasn’t their responsibility.