I recall going to the Norfolk Island Airshow back in April 1996. It was a spectacular event in more ways than one.
I recall the concern about a C172 that come out of Victoria. The pilot landed with some 14 litres of fuel remaining having got lost on the way to Norfolk. He had bought a handheld GPS the week before.
He is now doing Angel Flights.
The other event was a Baron. It came from southern Queensland. It arrived after dark, around 8 pm. No HF. Rain and fog with low cloud. Two airliners gave the approach away and went back home. The Baron (VH-O..) had nowhere to go. Not enough fuel to get back to Australia and Lord Howe is daylight landings only as I recall.
Jim Hazelton, the well known ferry pilot, talked the Baron down using a hand held VHF radio. The Baron got in. Jim deserved a medal for saving those on the Baron.
CASA would have been present. Some 2-3 years later came the CASA edict that if a charter or RPT flight went to Norfolk it had to check the weather in flight and have reserves to go somewhere better. I do not have a copy of that new requirement. Perhaps a reader could quote the fine detail.
It was patently obvious to anyone at that time that if you planned to go to Norfolk, private, aerial work, charter or RPT, that you should have the ability to check the weather enroute and have the ability, and fuel, to go somewhere where the weather allowed a landing if Norfolk was a no-landing destination.
Norfolk has long been known as a place where the weather changes, and changes for the worse, on short notice.
Many years pass and in 2010 we see the ditching of the Westwind.
I for one can only read the ATSB report and the PPrune comments and ask if the lessons of previous years have been forgotten, regardless if the flight was Pvt. AWK, Charter or RPT.
The CASA requirements are the minimum and do not stop an operator from stacking the odds in his or her favour by planning ahead, to have a plan B and have adequate fuel to go somewhere that would allow a landing even if the aircraft had to fly at low level or on one engine.
Having looked at the ATSB report I note a few things that did not seem to get enough press.
Lifejackets were available for all but not all POB were wearing them even when a ditching was imminent.
The thing that saved the POB in the water was the pilot and his handheld torch. This was luckily seen by a Norfolk Is. rescue person on a part of the Island where he was not expected to be.
A lifejacket with a strobe would have been a far better piece of equipment as well as a portable ELT with the crew members. Lifejackets have long been available that have pouches for carrying ELTs and Strobe lights.
These days it would seem that when the lifejacket requirement comes up it is just a tick in the box item rather than what sort of lifejacket it is and what beyond-basic features it has.
There is scant discussion about the lack of advice to Norfolk Unicom about the location for the intended ditching. That is one of the first things that a student pilot is taught when commencing Practise Forced Landings. Location, Location, Location! It did not happen in this case.
I look at the ATSB report and say that there were a number of avenues in the investigation that appear to have been glossed over.
I have no doubt that other pilots will agree.