Tiger’s A320 could have become a smoking hole in a suburb on this Avalon airport approach in 2011, and for CASA it was the last straw, causing it to ground the airline two days later.
Ben Sandilands is an experienced aviation journalist and commentator not easily fooled. Have a read of the article –
HERE – in which the procedure used by the Tiger crew is described as "the final straw", causing CASA to ground Tiger. An ATSB report which can con a bloke like Sandilands into writing such an article smacks of mild hysteria. Grab the YMAV VOR RWY 36 (or RNAV as pleases) and run the executed visual approach 'picture' over the approach (remember visual circuit) see how the flight path sensibly intercepts the IAL procedure for 'final'. Then work out where the circling area limits boundary ends and 'circling minima' then have a look at the IAL not below heights. The Tiger approach may 'arguably' be 'subjectively' claimed as technically illegal, but to say 'operationally unsafe' is a slightly hysterical over reaction, IMO used to justify the CASA politically motivated actions.
Sarcs # 94 –
"Now my beef is that this bureau initiative is all well and good but why weren't these latent safety issues made transparent and publicly available back then??
Now –Sarcs #94 – raises issues which may be described as 'secretive'; making the point that as far as anyone knew, there were no SR issued and no procedures developed to prevent the incident reoccurring the next day. Not to say procedural changes weren't made, just that they weren't made public. Once again look at all the factors leading up to what could have been a very serious accident. Maybe it's just me, but a meat bomb through the front wind-screen, cabin or engine would rate as a fairly significant event. Perhaps even demanding an immediate concerted public effort by all parties concerned. The effort may well have happened, but two years (AO-2011-142 - Nov 5, 2011) of waiting to know how the system was changed to eliminate potential meat bomb FOD is just a bit rich of peak.
Sandilands -
ATSB
Anyway OB, that's my two bob's worth; no matter how I choose to express it.