Ref: AO-2009-072 of 26 February 2010.&
Attachment One to ATSB letter AO-2009-072 of 26 February 2010.
Funny thing with this passage of correspondence is the ATSB team have the appearance of being well within TSI Act, Attachment 1 reads as if they had every intention of issuing a Safety Recommendation and not solely blaming the pilot. The report is structured in the general SR format. Division 2 of the TSI Act would be the natural pathway for the ATSB to follow; and, they give every appearance being set to do exactly that. Then we see the "meetings" and the strangely coincidental emails of protest from the ATSB "officers"; if there is a smoking gun, this is where it lays. So why the back flip?....
I can't see why the Ben Cook report could not have been presented to ATSB, they could and probably would work it round to being a 'feather' in the CASA cap, rather than the chamber pot they wear today. Three cheers for Wodger, master of the turning of silk purses into chamber pots trick.
The only 'honest' problem I can discern is that the Safety Recommendation would go "public", forcing CASA to act in a transparent, remedial manner, within a time frame. But I still fail to see why that should be a problem needing this level of panic. They are no stranger to twenty year broken promises of impending change.
Bump Beaker off the guest speaker list, lets have a Mike Watson (or similar) in, under privilege in camera if need be. Dump Beaker off the batting list, lets have an Alan Stray (or similar) analysis and get the reporting set to rights. At least let's have someone who can tell them all to "go and boil their bottoms" and draft the meaningful reports expected from a first class safety operation, not some bloody spin factory claptrap, doctored for reasons only the gods know, which fool no one.
I have ordered Guinness and Oysters to ease the earache and indigestion expected from 1600 o'clock onwards.
