Re Brian Abraham's Post #352
It would be interesting to compare the number of incidents arising from incorrect forecasting with those occuring prior to 1990 when there was an FSU located at NLK staffed with BoM qualified weather observers.
In those days, the FSU would have been responsibile for maintaining an "operational information watch" on each inbound aircraft and, as a result, had a responsibility to immediately notify any aircraft within 1 hour's flying time of any deterioration in weather below speci/altn criteria on both the destination and nominated alternate aerodromes. This early notification afforded pilots sufficient lead time to divert safely to any planned alternate or to return to the departure aerodrome prior to PNR if required.
However, with the removal of this FSU initiated service sometime around 1992, the onus now rests squarely with the PIC to take the initiative to update themselves on the latest conditions at both the destination and alternate aerodromes (preferably before reaching their PNR or latest point of safe diversion). ATC now only provides a directed service to aircraft for hazardous weather events (e.g. Sigmets); the availability of all other weather is only available from ATC on pilot request.
Since the change in 1992, I am constantly amazed at how many IFR pilots don't bother to update themselves on the terminal conditions at their destination and alternate aerodromes once becoming airborne, particularly when it is known that the destination weather is forecast or reported marginal.
I don't know whether the Unicom operator at NLK is a met approved observer or not, but one safety initiative that may need to be considered by CASA for island destinations (e.g. NLK, Cocos, Christmas etc) is to ensure that a Unicom/CAGRS operator is always in attendance for aircraft arrivals at island destinations, holds approved BoM observer qualifications and is supported by the re-introduction of operational information watch responsibilities under a LOA with the aircraft operator.