(Nerd alert, if anyone has trouble reading linked articles from the Australian or they ask you to log on, just google the heading and the whole thing will come up as a 'news' item
).
Documents obtained by The Australian show the Civil Aviation Safety Authority prepared a comprehensive prosecution "brief of evidence" against two key figures in Hempel's company, its chief executive Gordon Craig and chief pilot Michael Lawrence.
A spokesman for CASA said last night that after referring its brief of evidence to the commonwealth DPP it was advised that no prosecution would be launched.
Who was it in CASA who ordered them pulled?
If the article is correct, the DPP pulled the case, not CASA. If you get caught doing stuff that contravenes federal law (whether it be smuggling, ripping off the Tax Office, breaching CASA regs, importing foreign pineapples or whatever) the relevant federal agency has to refer the evidence they gather to the DPP, who decide whether a prosecution will proceed. In my experience, if the DPP knock it back there's not a lot the agency can do, except wail, gnash its teeth and call the DPP a bunch of nasty names.
It's theoretically possible that they were influenced by a person or persons within CASA, but you'd want some pretty strong evidence before you started throwing that accusation around, because if you were wrong it would be pretty defamatory to both CASA and the DPP.
Maybe CASA did try in this case. Wonder what the DPP story was?
Too hard? To expensive? Unlikely to win?