Journos had enough of dodgy charter aircraft
This story in The Weekend Australian, today 26 March.
Edited extract: It is titled:
Flying United.
The idea was to fly a couple of planeloads of journos to the Nullabor early yesterday morning to cover South Australia Premier Mike Rann declaring a 900,000ha wilderness protection area.
On one of the planes, unfortunately, the pilot’s door blew open 10 minutes into the flight. As The Advertiser reported: “Cameraman John Sever said on his Facebook page that he had to hold the door closed, while the pilot made an emergency landing. The aircraft got back in the air for a second attempt to get to Ceduna, but the plane’s generators failed, leaving it without lights. `Flew back by torch light with a full emergency landing, fire engines chasing us down the runway,` Sever says.” The real gold, though, is the magisterial understatement of the following line. “The media crews declined the offer of a third attempt.”
That story’s author was The Advertiser’s veteran political reporter, Greg Kelton, who was on the other plane with the ABC’s Nick Harmsen and a photographer. Kelton said his seat was shaking violently, but then the pilot announced they had to turn back to collect the journos from the other plane. But upon landing all the journos decided against any more airborne adventures.
In the meantime, while airline Air South cranked out a pre-emptive press release to reassure all that “the emergency landing involved another airline,” Rann was left to make the announcement without media attendance. Unquote:
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Although some would have a laugh at the journos expense, the fact remains (if the report is accurate) that both CASA and ATSB would be well advised to have a closer look at this particular operation. Aircraft doors don’t just happen to unlock in flight as a matter of routine. Two generators don’t just happen to fail while airborne at night as a matter of routine. Seats don’t just happen to shake violently. All this occurring to one charter operator on one day suggests to a cynic a history of these defects going officially un-recorded on previous flights. Of course it could all be put down to typical media beat up and if the passengers were not of the media it is doubtful if the story would have hit the streets.
It wasn’t that long ago when Beech 76 Duchess doors were well known for their propensity to pop open on take off or early climb. One pilot had both doors of his Duchess pop open on take- off from Essendon even though the maintenance release was clean – no reported previous door defects. Investigation revealed that this particular Duchess had a history of door popping during take -off. Pilots accepted this as ops normal and made casual verbal reports only. The CFI blamed it on pilot error.
A CAIR report was sent ATSB. (BASIS?) In turn, ATSB forwarded it to CASA who said that had never heard of reports of doors popping open on Duchess aircraft. An investigation revealed that contrary to CASA’s claims of no problem existing, in fact there were many instances of door opening events on VH registered Duchess. In USA, all occupants of a Duchess were killed when a door came open in flight and the pilot lost control while turning back to land. CASA acted by issuing an AD requiring inspection of Duchess door operation and that any instances must be endorsed in the maintenance release. But that was a long time ago and the present generation of young commercial pilots would never know of those events. But it's a good bet that Duchess doors still pop open occasionally and go unreported in the maintenance release.
Melbourne based charter pilots will recall the so called “Penguin Runs” which operated each evening to Phillip Island where tourists were flown from Essendon to see the penguin colonies. Various aircraft types were used or cross-hired to the main operating company and these included two venerable DH Dove’s, Chieftains, Navajo’s, Cessna 310, Partenavia and Baron. It was vital these runs were on time to catch the penguins coming from the sea to their burrows on the shore. Miss the penguins and people wanted their money refunded. Complimentary drinks were served by the operator to passengers in the Essendon Terminal building. After a quick gulp they embarked on the motley fleet of general aviation twins waiting on the tarmac. Japanese formed the main customers.
This writer recalls boarding his passengers in a Navajo at Essendon. They included a surly American tourist who sat up front in the right hand pilot seat. Doors were closed, the safety chain attached with much tugging and safety brieing concluded. The right hand engine jerked and stopped –the battery unable to take the starter load and not a good look seeing as the penguins were always on time.
The pilot was in the process of climbing from the aircraft when the manager of the operation came running toward the aircraft screaming at the pilot to stop stuffing around and get the aircraft started. The docile Japanese were embarrassed by this bogan Australian but the American was more vocal and voiced his concern about the state of the aircraft.
Upset at the bullying attitude of the manager, the pilot retorted that the manager could fly the bloody aircraft himself and prepared to walk off the job on the spot. The manager rushed back to the terminal and returned with another battery and eventually the aircraft departed with the same pilot.
En-route to Philip Island the Navajo door warning light illuminated causing the American tourist to jump up and down again. The pilot quietly cursed but assured the Yank all was well. Shortly after touch down on Philip Island ALA, the starboard propeller feathered itself and the aircraft stopped on the strip with the pilot wisely refusing to attempt to taxi any further. At that point the Yank tourist errupted and demanded another aircraft be flown in to replace the Navajo. The Japanese listened impassively ; no doubt pleased that someone had at last spoken up.
A phone call was made to the operations manager who accused the pilot of being a twit – a typical reaction that characterized the manager. A couple of hours later, a Cessna 310 arrived to pick up the tourists to take them home. Meanwhile the pilot of the Navajo managed to get the engine started and the prop was unfeathered. Various unsuspecting passengers were picked up from the half-lit Philip Island shed that served as a meeting place, and were flown back in the Navajo. Somewhere in Pprune Aussie archives are stories by those intrepid pilots who flew the Penguin Runs of yore. Not all were complimentary of the operation or of the state of the various aircraft roped in to fly.
In those days I don’t think CASA had a clue what was going on right under its nose. And now in 2011, I wonder if the local South Australia Region CASA people read The Weekend Australian?