On 2 October 1994, VH-SVQ operated by Seaview Air was lost with all nine souls on board.
The report of the $20 million Commission of Inquiry by Commission Staunton into the Relations between the Civil Aviation Authority and Seaview Air followed. Commissioner Staunton's fifth recommendation was:
That in respect of Civil Aviation Regulation 206 (relating to various forms of commercial operations, including regular public transport operations) urgent consideration be given to amending or replacing the Regulation to overcome the problems identified in the course of the Commission.
I note from the newspaper report I quoted above that:
[T]he new regulations may not be in place before the end of 2014.
Are governments and their agencies now so bereft of integrity and competence, that 20 years could pass from the Seaview tragedy without one substantial syllable having changed in the regulations to address that recommendation?
An ‘urgent’ recommendation founded on the loss of 9 innocent lives.
20 years?
Not one syllable?
Where are we going to find the necessary critical mass of people with sufficient integrity and competence to actually produce something in response to that recommendation?
I think it’s an out-and-out
national disgrace.