Wow !
What a thread and likewise the Coroners report. Unable to contact the ATSB officer ! The Chief pilot claiming no knowledge of extra professional activities ! Substandard accommodation. Where was CASA while all this was happening ?
Altogether a real can of worms. The retirement of the Chief Pilot can be called convenient but perhaps not beyond the arm of a court action should someone want to follow up on the apparent and knowingly lack of positive control and supervision of the junior pilots at the Lake. Little wonder that the pilots at that location went ferel.
They were underpaid. They lived in sub standard accommodation. They were juniors being exploited in the name of getting flight time to try and better their lives.
There was a major lack of supervision by the CP and not even an experienced, more mature, real senior pilot. One has to say that the firm would not have employed a real senior pilot because it would have cost real money, money that they were apparently not prepared to pay. What is that expression 'You pay peanuts, you get monkeys'?
Reviewing this accident and the Coroners report one has to come to the conclusion that this type of rot is probably going on elsewhere.
One has to ask the question 'What does CASA intend to do about this type of activity'?
One also has to ask serious questions about the involvement or lack of involvement of the ATSB, an organisation that until recently has had the universal respect of the industry. Perhaps no longer.
This writer is of the opinion that a copy of the Coroners report should be forwarded to the CP and owners of all the top end charter firms with the statement that this type of activity stops NOW - no lack of supervision, no pilots allowed to go ferel, no sub standard pay deals and no sub standard accommodation, to name just a few.
In short they will have been warned!
From this point onward those owners and CPs are totally responsible for ensuring that the activities noted above have finished. Period.
Owners and CPs that allow this type of rot to continue are in the gun for legal and financial action. Claiming ignorance will be no excuse !
CASA for one needs to lift its game to ensure that the flying side, at least, is checked and rechecked. Transgressions are to result in the immediate grounding of said firms and the CPs approval cancelled. And the whole dirty mess publicised.
On that subject ALL pilots should be sending a copy of this thread and a copy of the Coroners report to each and every newspaper, big and small, to put the maximum pressure that we can bear onto these two bit firms that could not care a damm about their pilots and their welfare !
Then, and only then, will we see a change in the attitude of some charters firms towards their pilots and their operations in general.