For the benefit of those amongst us more inclined to moving pictures and the many nuances therein; here is the vid passage for your entertainment...
Kharon - I for one would like to see them; but better still, now that Terry is the 'guv'nor' for him bring in the missing minutes in and to answer directly, under oath, those questions posed to him by Xenophon, taken on notice by McComic and explain why the non-answers were returned, buried under a pile of twaddle.
Hmmm...perfect opportunity for the Ag (currently carrying the can) DAS to clear the air on the missing minutes, when he presents before the committee on 20 October at Supp Estimates...
Here I was thinking that on the PelAir - Timeline of Embuggerance (TOE) - the cupboard was pretty bare after 22 July 2010 where the AgDAS emailed to the DAS, quote from my post -
TOE (P3.5) cont/- :
However the next email reply (4 days later) from the (obfuscating) DDAS seems to be where everything went South for the next two years??
“…is comfortable with the report's content, to the extent that it correlates with the AAT material to be submitted shortly and that there are no differences that can be highlighted by the opposing legal team…”
People can fill in the blanks but basically the report (CAIR 09/3) matched the evidence (ducks in a row) intended to be presented at the AAT, except the opposing legal team did fervently contest this evidence. Hmm…wonder if the opposing legal team were privy to CAIR 09/3 in its entirety?
After this statement from the former DAS...
"....We did not provide that report to anyone. We did not provide the report outside—I am talking about the CASA accident report—we did not provide that report as we naturally would not do until the ATSB demanded it of us under section 32..."
I now wonder if the CAIR 09/3 was indeed requested by the bureau under s32 and if so when was this request made?? It would appear from the AgDAS (then DDAS) email that he was never going to freely give it up...
“…When (redacted) has confirmed the fuel calculations, would like to discuss in general the report with ATSB. In any discussions (redacted) would not provide the ATSB with a copy of the report but would talk about the salient points. This is in keeping with the spirit of the MOU…”
I also question the veracity of a statement from the AgDAS a bit further along in the Hansard (approx. 05:30 in the vid):
Senator XENOPHON: Yes, but there was a lead-up to that. The downgrading occurred as a result of a number of representations. How many times did you meet with the ATSB to discuss CASA's views about whether it should be a critical safety issue or not? It was clearly the view of CASA that it should not be a critical safety issue. Is that right?
Mr Farquharson : The CASA view was that the legislative approach the ATSB were proposing at the time could not be achieved and in our responses we pointed out to them an amount of information and that these decisions come down to airmanship and the responsibilities of the captain when airborne. They were the two positions taken.
Beyond that the next we heard, that I am aware of, was when the safety issue was formally downgraded by the commission on 16 August 2012—
Especially when you consider this part of my previous (in particular the Annex A link) post above:
Which says to me that the DAS (at least) was expecting the bureau (as is normal procedure) to soon publish an interim report on at least the CSI. It was just a matter of whether that would be in the form of a SR or an SI. This assumption by the DAS was also reinforced by the fact that a month before his ‘white hats’ had drafted
NPRM 1003 OS and he had personally endorsed the proposed amendment to CAO 82.0 (
Annex A).
Nah surely it can't be that our now (acting or not) fearless leader would dare to mislead the good Senators and indeed the IOS, hmm maybe he just had a forgettery moment...
Maybe in the interest of probity the AgDAS, along with being armed with the minutes, could also clear this strange conundrum up at the Sup Estimates, after all the buck currently stops with the AgDAS...
Addendum - AQON links
By the way for those interested the AQONs for the last Budget Estimates have finally been released...
Here are the relevant links of most interest:
229 - 240 Aviation and Airports (AAA)(PDF 180KB)QoN230A-B (PDF 106KB)
241 - 257 Airservices Australia (AA)(PDF 256KB)
258 - 262 Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB)(PDF 92KB)
263 - 273 Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA)(PDF 157KB)
From the ATsB AQONs in regards to TSBC peer review
Senator Xenophon, Nick asked:
Senator XENOPHON: Was this committee's report into the Pel-Air incident provided to the TSB? Is that one of the documents that the TSB is looking at?
Mr Dolan: Yes.
Senator XENOPHON: I take it, Chair, we have not been contacted by the TSB. No, we have not. Was any view proffered as to whether the Senate committee should be contacted in respect of their report and in respect of the incident?
Mr Dolan: We provided the report to the TSB and left it to them.
Senator XENOPHON: Are you able to provide the committee on notice a list of the material, documents and any correspondence in respect to the matters that the committee was considering?
Mr Dolan: Yes. I can give you a list of all material that was provided by us to the TSB.
Answer:
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) of its own initiative obtained a copy of the committee’s report. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) provided the following material to the TSB:
• ATSB Safety Investigation Quality System Manual;
• ATSB Safety Investigation Policy and Procedures Manual;
• ATSB Safety Investigation Guidelines Manual;
• ATSB Safety Investigations Tools Manual;
• ATSB Safety Investigation Information Management System access;
• ATSB organisation chart;
• Final Report of the Safety Oversight Audit of the Civil Aviation System of Australia (February 2008);
• Summary of ATSB actions in response to the International Civil Aviation Organization Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program 2008 Audit Findings;
• Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s Post-occurrence Special Audit of PelAir;
• Memorandum of Understanding between the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (February 2010);
• International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 13 – Electronic Filing of Differences (July 2010);
• The Chambers Report: Oversight Deficiencies – PelAir and Beyond (August 2010);
• Memorandum of Understanding between the ATSB and the Department of Defence Directorate of Defence Aviation and Air Force Safety for Cooperation relating to Transport Safety Investigation (February 2013); and
• Government Response to the Report into Aviation Accident Investigations (March 2014).
MTF...
