Wal, I would agree with you if they hadn't spent the better part of the story dealing with dramatic imagery, emotional interviews and long shots of the heroic journalist.
There is a story in this but did we hear a CASA spokesperson as to why the exemption was granted? No. Did the refueller at Samoa get interviewed? The pilot may have said something as to why he didn't order full tanks.
The previous threads on this subject castigated the pilot, however, there is a strong chance he was acting within the company AOC. There is a huge argument that he should have gone beyond them in these circumstances. I am certain an old South Pacific hand would have tanked the thing to the brim but somehow I doubt the pilot fitted that description.
I would also be interested to know what the company reaction would have been had he tanked it to the brim and been able to land at Norfolk Island. Would he have been criticised by the company for operating the aircraft at heavier weights than it needed to be thereby increasing the costs of the flight?
I don't know the answers to these questions but I am not going to Monday morning quarter-back the pilot at this point. My suspicion is that no-one associated with this flight from CASA to the pilot is going to come out clean.
Underneaththeradar,
Whilst I might be wrong on the point I thought the program said that Pel-Air did have an exemption in their AOC. Yes, the former CASA fellow said it should have been ignored but he was an old SP hand.
Last edited by PLovett; 7th Mar 2010 at 08:42.
Reason: To include something about the exemption