I agree with Wally's posts.
Airmanship must preside, but it is a huge let down that if the flight was conducted within the law, i.e. SOP,CAO, CAAP etc, the law comprimised the safety of the flight.
I have mostly flown charters with the min required flight fuel - I have had held faith in the
book, pressumably much like Dominik. (I will however add that rightly or wrongly I have had the tanks full to the gool on flights through LHI, NF, etc, i.e. left myselft an option).
I have long suspected that little or inadequate consideration is given by both company managers and the regulator to CASA exemptions and company SOPs. These two definitions of the law must provide, to the highest probability, for a safe flight by the lowest common denominator in the company operating the flight.
The PIC may apply Airmanship to fill the percieved holes of the SOPs/ Orders, regs, etc but there shouldn't be any holes in the first place. Is fuel load monitored and reviewed by anyperson other than the company accountant, i.e company operations or the regulator? If 9/10 Pilots depart the island with max fuel, more than what is rq by the rules, I would expect that someone would be in charge to monitor the trend and find out why this is so and reveiw the SOPs/ Rules.
as an aside: I have flown with company's where neither the CP, OPS manager or staff know anything about the company SOP. Most company's that I have flown for have disregard for the SOP. I have also flown with companies where much of the SOPs are irrelevant to the operation. How many SOPs that you know off have been cut and pasted from another company without thorough thought, or developed generally by a third party?
I found the 60-minutes program entertaining. The bit of info I took from the show was that PELAIR had reportedly not offered an apology, best wishes or gifts to the PAX involved. This fact is devestating to the service of Aviation. Perhaps herein lies a role for yet another
middle manager - title: Head of Operations - Public Apologies... no wait that title doesn't have 100 letters in it.
PELAIR if you're listening... your fault or not, send a
box of roses chocolates to the poor pax of your flight
please!