John O'Brien has won his case at the AAT !!!
Late on Friday 20th February the Australian Appeals Tribunal handed down their decision after over 2 months of deliberation following the standoff between John O'Brien backed by the CVDPA and pilot unions against CASA.
John can now make use of his ATPL qualifications and upgrade to Captain of a multi-crew airliner - something he and his employer have been wanting to do for a considerable time. The statement 'Not for ATPL use' on his Class 1 medical certificate will have to be lifted by CASA.
John, a protanope, has been unable to pass any colour vision testing (Ishihara, Farnsworth, CAD and Tower Signal Light) but has defeated CASA by proving in court and in the air [via the normal line check and training] that he is able to perform all tasks at least as safely as any colour normal pilot. He is a 5000 hour+ DASH 8 co-pilot with an outstanding record (in Oz a copilot only needs a CPL)
Protanopes were left out of the 1989 test case 'Denison' which ruled that deuteranopes were no risk to safety.
Over the last 24 years CASA has stubbornly insisted a CVD pilot still pass the tower light gun test in order to be de-restricted. Many CVDs pass this test as the wavelengths used in the workplace are not confusing to CVD people - we pilots have never had a problem. Its only the lab tests that use wavelengths of red, green and white on the confusion lines for CVD people.
This is a landmark decision by the AAT effectively making all colour vision testing of pilots redundant.
For a copy of the decision see
http://www.CVDPA.com