The US was so concerned about the state of Australia's air safety system in 2009 that it considered downgrading Australian airlines flying to the US.
The revelation, in a US State Department cable
released this week by WikiLeaks, discussed a safety inspection by the US's Federal Aviation Authority, which audits countries whose carriers fly to the United States to ensure they meet appropriate safety standards.
A downgrade to Category 2 would be the worst-case scenario, which would entail measures such as freezing Australia-US flight operations to current levels and terminating code-sharing arrangements.
In the cable, written in December 2009, it is revealed the FAA told Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) that Australia could face a downgrade to "Category 2" due to a shortage of properly trained safety inspectors and too much delegation of CASA's regulatory function to carriers.
A Category 2 rating suggests that FAA believes the country's safety regime does not meet international standards. It is a category mainly used for countries in the developing world.
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"A downgrade to Category 2 would be the worst-case scenario, which would entail measures such as freezing Australia-US flight operations to current levels and terminating code-sharing arrangements, such as the one between Qantas and American Airlines," the cable stated.
"CASA officials are not taking this possibility lightly and seem committed to resolve the shortcomings in order to avoid a downgrade."
The findings resulted from a five-day safety audit by FAA officers in late 2009, which found
"significant shortcomings" in CASA's maintenance of the Australian aviation regulatory system.
CASA has been criticised for delegating too much of its regulatory obligations to the flight carriers in the past, and the FAA audit may well have been the last straw.
In the 2010 budget, the government announced a large funding increase for CASA, which some commentators believe was following a rising sense of unease about recent safety incidents involving Qantas and Jetstar.
The FAA audit may also help explain why CASA was so severe when cracking down on Tiger earlier this year.