Ferris Wheel plane crash not part of fun of the fair
This manages to be both serious, and funny, because no-one died. The ATSB has published its
final report into what appears to be the world’s only collision between a powered aircraft and a ferris wheel at a fun fair.
This is the ATSB summary of the crash at Old Bar Airstrip in NSW on in October 2011.
What happened
On 1 October 2011, the pilot of a Morgan Aero Works Cheetah Sierra 200 aircraft (Sierra), registered 24-7634, was attempting to land at the Old Bar Airstrip after conducting a private flight from Taree Airport, New South Wales.
The pilot commenced a go-around after touching down. During the climb out the aircraft collided with a ferris wheel that was part of a group of amusements located at a beach festival, adjacent and to the south of the airstrip.
There were two persons on board the Sierra and four occupants of the ferris wheel at the time of the collision. There were no reported injuries from the occupants of the ferris wheel, and the passenger in the Sierra reported receiving a minor injury.
What the ATSB found
The ATSB found that the management of risk in relation to flight training operations by Recreational Aviation Australia Incorporated (RA-Aus) was adequate; however, it had been circumvented in a number of areas during the training of the pilot. That resulted in a pilot operating in the aviation environment who did not possess the required competencies to exercise the privileges of a private pilot certificate.
The ATSB also found that the approach to the management of risk by the Old Bar Beach Festival Committee, specifically relating to aviation operations at the beach festival, was ineffective and resulted in a level of risk that had the potential to impact on the objectives of the festival.
What’s been done as a result
RA-Aus have taken steps to ensure that the flight training facility that undertook the pilot’s training and its staff are aware of the requirements imposed upon them by the RA-Aus Operations Manual, and that RA-Aus staff at the facility have the required skills and knowledge to carry out flight training operations. The pilot underwent a flight review that established the need for additional training.
The festival and airstrip committees reported that in future the airstrip will be closed and aviation operations suspended when the festival is taking place.
Re-read the part of the paragraph that has been rendered in
bold type.
Now ask yourself, what does a flying school that the ATSB says was adequate, and then goes on to say produced a totally inaquately trained pilot, have to do to get its authorisations to operate revoked?
This is another example of the comical behaviour of the ATSB in relation to public safety, even though, fortunately, no-one was killed. Less comical of course was CASA allowing an unfit pilot, Barry Hempel, to kill a member of the public on a joy flight near Brisbane because of its resolute inability to take its responsibilities for public safety seriously. When it comes to weasel words, as Don Watson famously called them, the ATSB and CASA are highly accomplished.
And don’t take my word for it, look up the report into the death Barry Hempel and his passenger Ross Lovell by the Queensland Coroner. The news of the day report is
here, and the court document, which is the legally privileged basis for the Courier-Mail report, can be
found in full here.