Folks,
Far too many of you are spending energy getting stuck into Dick, because that is all you can do!! Give Dick some credit for trying ( as he has done over many years) to do something to improve aviation.
As I have previously posted, and Bill Pike has illustrated, the "dog in a manger" attitude of the Australian military (particularly the RAAF, and more particularly, the long history and custom of Willy) should have ended years ago.
There is (and never was) any justification for the vast swathes of airspace in Australia that is controlled or restricted by the military, particularly the RAAF.
There is more military controlled/restricted airspace in Australia, than the whole of the USA. Indeed, looks like the Chinese have been following Australian precedent in declaring airspace restrictions in international waters, where they have no legal right**.
It also looks like far to many of you have not absorbed much, over the years, about accident causation, remember all the good works of James Reason, Rob Lees etc.
Dick did not say that it was all the RAAF fault, the program acknowledged the actions of the PIC, but THE WHOLE POINT was that a clearance coastal would have almost certainly broken the building chain of events.
It only takes one action to prevent the holes in the Swiss cheese lining up, and the potential accident does not happen. A prompt clearance to track coastal through Willy would almost certainly have been that action.
Despite what some of you are saying, in all these years, and despite new equipment, the Willy situation has not changed, rigid, inflexible and bureaucratic, a metaphor for far too much of Australian aviation, a sclerotic inability to change and advance for the good.
Can any of you actually justify the vast swathed of military airspace in Australia, compared to USA or UK/Europe, or the military disrespect for the entirely legitimate needs of civil aviation??
Good on Dick for at least trying to force change.
Tootle Pip!!
** Australia (like P.R.China "ADIZ" more recently) continues to declare military restricted airspace outside of Australia's territorial limits. Such purported restrictions have absolutely no legal basis, and the DoD, and the A-Gs know it, but the practice continues.