DEPUTY Prime Minister Warren Truss has asked the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to re-open its controversial inquiry into the Pel-Air crash off Norfolk island in 2009.
The ATSB was forced to defend its handling of the investigation before a Senate Committee after irregularities emerged in its handling of the Westwind jet crash in November 2009.
All six occupants of the jet survived the night-time ditching of a CareFlight medical evacuation from Noumea but CASA suspended the licence of pilot-in-command Dominic James and the airline grounded its Westwind operations.
Captain Dominic James, a former Cleo Bachelor on the year nominee
Source: News Limited
The ATSB took almost three years to produce a report that identified mistakes by the flight crew relating to fuel planning and weather checks as contributing safety factors and to a lesser extent criticised the available guidance on these issues from the company.
The Senate committee was formed after an ABC
Four Corners investigation revealed a CASA audit after the crash, and not mentioned in the ATSB report, uncovered 57 breaches and “serious deficiencies’’ at Pel-Air.
Mr Truss announced today as part of the government’s response to a report in aviation safety chaired by industry veteran David Forsyth that a review by the Canada Transportation Safety Board had found the ATSB made mistakes in its investigation.
“While the Canadian TSB found that ATSB investigation methodology and analysis tools represent best practice and have been shown to produce very good results, they found that in the case of the Pel-Air investigation, there were errors made,’’ Mr Truss said.
“I am concerned that the TSB report raises some concerns about the application of ATSB methodologies in the investigation into the ditching of a Pel-Air off Norfolk Island in 2009.
“As a consequence, I have asked the ATSB Commission to give serious consideration to reopening the investigation.’’
Mr Truss said he had appointed an additional ATSB commissioner with aviation experience and would be issuing a new Statement of Expectations to the bureau once the government had the opportunity to review the findings of the Canadian review...