Mostlytossas, thanks for the explanation of how the system works. I can see the scenario in relation to Williamtown.
First of all, Bruce Byron announces to the aviation Taskforce (which I was a member of) that he would not be allowing Williamtown to operate over the 08/09 Christmas break without air traffic control. Presumably the military then tell the Department that they are not going to operate the service and won’t cooperate with Airservices in any way.
Then Airservices Australia tells the Department that they won’t be providing a service there as they are not allowed to man the military tower.
Rather than someone showing some leadership and resolving this quite childish issue, the next step takes place. It would be a question like this, “Would it be possible to re-do the safety case again to see if Williamtown can be operated over the Christmas period without any air traffic control at all?” (Wink wink).
The CASA Office of Airspace Regulation produces a new safety case, which (amazingly) shows that air traffic control is not necessary there at all. No doubt the bureaucrats involved believe they are doing the “right thing” just as the bureaucrats in the Wheat Board thought they were doing the right thing by Australian farmers.
If this is not the correct scenario, you would wonder why the Minister or Bruce Byron, or Mike Taylor (the head of the Department) did not issue a simple press release explaining how Dick Smith is wrong, that the safety case is not a fake and explaining how they were able to justify not having air traffic control at the busiest and riskiest time of the year.
Of course they remained silent as the Wheat Board bureaucrats remained silent.
The sad thing is that the airline passengers were never asked to be involved. I bet if they were allowed to decide whether they should pay 50 cents per ticket extra for full air traffic control, that they would have said yes.
Are we to wait for a horrendous accident before these problems are fixed?
It is interesting that the dishonesty with the Wheat Board was only exposed by the United Nations. I suppose we will have to wait for a Royal Commission after an accident before a similar situation is exposed within the aviation bureaucracy.
Last edited by Dick Smith; 17th Dec 2008 at 04:59.