True, and I am probably as guilty as others for not "dobbing" but I was fighting a battle with CASA at the same time and I was aware of the stupidity of laying such a complaint.
Everybody knows.
Everybody knew with Transair (whatever name was on the tickets
) and I was as guilty as anyone. I didn't pick up the phone either. I know people who did and received no acknowlegment or follow up from the regulator.
If I had? IMO there would have been no gain. Absolute risk to me (the dog) with no guarantee of a resolution. That's the level of trust that the community has in the regulator. Don't bother calling.
It sounds like you did what you could; you did what you thought was right. A reasonable person would have listened to your advice but the reasonable person defence falls down when we're talking about an unreasonable person.
A regulator should be there to curtail the unreasonable persons; that's what they're there for. That's why the Commonwealth entrusts them with things like the right of search; the right to interview; the right to curtail business activities. These are not rights that should be taken lightly, but unfortunately that seems to have happened in other cases. Why didn't people call the regulator? Maybe because they didn't trust them.
Whether people were beating down the door with complaints or whether the word on the street was that Hempel was acting dodgy makes no difference; I find it hard to believe they didn't know. If people knew and weren't beating down their door then that says something about the aviation community's perception of its (alleged) regulator.
Sure Milton's yawny but there's a bit in there.