This thought provoking line of debate is one that can do with a good further airing. Putting a brake on those 'accidents going somewhere to happen' will always be a concern of those who train, oversee and regulate. But as an aside, to say 'all lives are priceless' . . .. . well that is a contentious statement, better not gone into here. (Except to say, any one person's life is likely to be priceless to someone close to that person.)
The SOCs the Senior Operational Controllers, did a brilliant job, by and large,that's for sure. One there was at Mascot, the late Doug Hand. What
a quiet, unassuming wealth of aviation and air safety lore resided in that
man's grey matter. The men who came out of the RAAF after the war and who chose to join 'the department' were of a type and calibre whose passing some of us lament. We, the lot of us, are the poorer for not having their kind around today.
Another worthy of honourable mention is the late Don Charlwood, (author of 'No Moon Tonight'). Don did a power of good for the implementation of
sound air traffic controls in Australia and PNG, at the training level.
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Someone mentioned an old flight plan he still has. I have one amongst the souvenirs filled in by the late Chris Braund. One of the boxes at the bottom has 'MEANS OF CANCELLING SAR'.
Chris crossed out 'radio' and 'telephone' and wrote in instead 'smoke signal'.
he prefixed his signature at the bottom of the form with 'yours sincerely'
(Chris also appended his initials to the Mustang he bought and flew away from Tocumwal for 300 pounds - VH-FCB)