Slam click:
Without knowing how the BHP employee was killed, it's a bit hard to draw a comparison. But the reason why AOC operators should be handled differently is because every step of operating an aircraft, everything we do, is regulated by law. Laws designed to maintain safety. The servicability of an aircraft, the way it is maintained, loaded, fueled, operated and documented, is all laid out in the CAA, CAR, CAO, CASR, along with other various acts, standards and manuals.
Many of those rules are below what you could expect to be as safe as reasonably possible, but this allows operators to develop their processes to manage the risks of operating, and remain financially viable. The problem being is the operators that don't use that lowest, baseline safety standard, and fall below it because of commercial pressures.
slam click, good try. Yes, like it or not, we are all governed by laws, but that is not the point. If any Australian police force behaved as CASA is alleged to behave, meaning vindictive, selective, spiteful and capricious, there would be blood in the streets.
As the saying goes; any set of laws are acceptable when enforced by Angels and no set of laws is any good if enforced by the devil. The laws are not the issue, it is the alleged method of enforcement. why was not Hempels AOC not cancelled long ago?
Why did it take CASA 20 years to detect Barriers "unsafe culture"? If you accept the alleged CASA assertion that change is impossible, it means their audits failed for Twenty years to detect anything and it was only a helpful disgruntled ex employee who blew the whistle.
The laws themselves have nothing to do with the matter, it is the apparent total failure of CASA to operate under anything like a "just culture".
As far as "absolute safety" is concerned there is no such thing, which is why I mentioned the mining and ground transport industries and it is specious to argue that aviation should be held to some higher standard that automatically precludes aviators from the same legal protections as other citizens.