Quokka, I have spoken to a number of people who are close to those involved in the Benalla accident, and not one of those people blames air traffic controllers for the accident. They blame the “archaic airspace and procedures that were designed before radar was introduced.” They also blame “those responsible for change that never ask how it can be done better.”
I know many air traffic controllers who would like to see proper procedures introduced for radar covered airspace that is presently uncontrolled. It is just that the “bosses” at Airservices and CASA are almost completely useless and can’t bring in any change at all.
By the way, who in their right mind would bother to wait for the ATSB investigation? Instead of making any comment about using proper procedures or changing the airspace at Benalla, its only recommendation was for the introduction of some type of flight data recorder for aircraft of that size.
Their final report completely ignored my
Unsafe Skies publication (see
here). It is obvious that the ex-air traffic controllers involved in writing the report simply couldn’t think laterally and see – as many controllers can – that there are better ways of handling the airspace at Benalla that could have prevented the needless loss of life.