Apparently the angry man is getting angrier and in public too
:
CASA head gets more bad press on top of Pel-Air issues
The Telegraph and Herald Sun sites are carrying a report about CASA Director of Aviation Safety John McCormick this morning which are unflattering in relation to allegations as to what he said after experiencing a firm landing in Brisbane on a Qantas flight from Canberra in May.
At face value the reported comments are trivial, if uncouth, if they were actually said.
But true or untrue, the report would hardly be welcome considering the far more serious issues raised about McCormick’s conduct and actions in withholding from the ATSB a document of material importance when it was making its supposedly independent inquiry into the Pel-Air crash near Norfolk Island in 2009.
What is remarkable however about the news item published this morning is that Qantas doesn’t deny that it happened. It says instead to quote the news item “Qantas doesn’t comment on individual passengers on individual flights.”
That is the kick in the report. Qantas doesn’t deny the existence of an internal report, nor its contents, that the newspapers have relied upon to write their report. Maybe it will later today. Either way it is not as important when it comes to the state of public administration of air safety in this country and the abuse of process by CASA under McCormick, and the ATSB, that was identified and annotation in great detail by a recent Senate committee inquiry into the final report into the Pel-Air crash that was published after a delay of nearly three years last year.
That is where the Senate committee from its own investigations found a crucial document suppressed by CASA that was a review of its actions in relation to the Pel-Air crash that was ordered by McCormick.
In that ‘Chambers review’ CASA’s incompetence and lack of oversight in relation to Pel-Air was exposed, yet hidden from the notice of the ATSB contrary to the provisions of the Transport Safety Investigation Act, raising the question, as yet unanswered, as to whether McCormick had committed an offence under the act.
In testimony before the Senate committee when he was confronted with the document, McCormick both admits and apologises for his actions.
The Chambers review document makes the point that had CASA done its job properly the Pel-Air crash might never have occurred. The suppression of that document, and the shabby quality of the ATSB report into the crash, has raised doubts as to the integrity and professionalism and direction of the ATSB, with the Senate committee specifically detailing what they considered the unsatisfactory testimony given to it by the ATSB chief commissioner Martin Dolan.
The difference between the ATSB’s conduct in Pel-Air crash, and in its role in the investigation of a catastrophic engine failure on a Qantas A380 in November 2010 is expected to be on full display this morning when its final report into that incident is released.
The ATSB in conjunction with other international air safety bodies, has exhaustively pursued every piece of evidence in relation to that incident, unlike its much criticised role in producing a very flawed report into the Pel-Air crash.
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2013/06/27/casa-head-gets-more-bad-press-on-top-of-pel-air-issues/
Civil Aviation Safety Authority boss John McCormick denies accusations of misbehaviour on flight
Now that's the kind of headline that Mr Mrdak and co really want to wake up to hey?? Doin a Kelpie...
