Lefthanded_Rock_Thrower
You may be very right when you say that a Chief Pilot may not be able to stop people from doing stupid things, but they will be held responsible for them. From what has been written in the Coroner’s report there was a severe lack of supervision of operations at this companies remote bases. Accusations have also been made in the report that the pilot concerned and other pilots had been known to do this type of thing before.
Evidence was given at the inquest about a culture of cowboy flying by the "Mooney pilots", as the Air Frontier pilots were known. There was a habit of low flying and the doing of tricks, in fact both Mr Robertson and Mr Stace indicated that they had undertaken aerobatic procedures for which they were not trained. The deceased himself had a reputation for low flying and had told Mr Robertson when he arrived only two weeks before the accident as the newest Air Frontier pilot that "what happens in East Arnhem Land stays in East Arnhem Land". Given that the deceased was the Senior Base pilot at Lake Evella, and to an extent at least responsible for Mr Robertson's training and supervision that evidence is disturbing and corroborative of the cowboy culture.
I don’t know this company and its reputation because I never operated out of Darwin, but isn’t it a shame that this company appears to have had a reputation amongst other individuals and companies. I certainly knew which companies had a good reputation when I worked in FNQ a number of years ago. They all instilled a culture of professionalism and maturity. New pilots were selected not only on their experience but also on their attitude, something that was lacking in many a hopeful new pilot I interviewed. From our companies point of view it was made very clear at the interview and in their contract that any breach of the CAO’s, ANO’s and SOP’s could lead to instant dismissal.
