"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
-- Upton Sinclair
It's worth going back to the last time fatigue was really in the spotlight in
2011, and look at what was said and by whom. The links below are to the Hansard for the Pilot training, airline safety and the Transport Safety Investigation Amendment (Incident Reports) Bill 2010.
It is worth carefully reviewing what the complete transcripts, because what has changed since then? Absolutely nothing. Nothing is likely to change, there will be more talk, and more proposals, more reports, more industry feedback, more consultation, more proposed rules. Ultimately the only thing that will be change is the B787 is likely to be granted a specific CAO 48 exemption. That is it, status quo, because the operators are extremely happy with that. Any other system will be more restrictive on them,
cost them money and hence ANY changes should be avoided at all costs.
You only need to look at the verbatim quotes from the transcripts to understand that a man understands where his salary comes from...
RURAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT REFERENCES COMMITTEE
18/03/2011 Pilot training, airline safety and the Transport Safety Investigation Amendment (Incident Reports) Bill 2010
Senator XENOPHON —Senator O’Brien has asked witnesses today a very pertinent question. The US Congress has passed legislation that has time limits as to whether you are working for a regulator or working for industry. There are different views on that. I think Mr Borghetti from Virgin had a slightly different view to one of his senior executives in maintenance, who thought it was not a bad thing. The civil aviation order 48 is dated 18 September 2009 and it is signed off by Mark Rossiter, who was the manager of CASA operations and air transport for the southern region. Is that your understanding?
Mr McCormick —Yes.
Senator XENOPHON —Mr Rossiter subsequently is now the head of safety at Jetstar. Are aware of when he got the position?
Mr McCormick —As you correctly point out—and thank you for that, Senator—Mark Rossiter was the manager of CASA operations air transport. On 5 October he moved from that position into the safety oversight branch. Then, on 6 December 2009, he left CASA’s employment.
Senator XENOPHON —So within less than three months he had shifted to Jetstar—is that right?
Mr McCormick —Sorry, from September to December?
Senator XENOPHON —Yes, it was a bit under three months.
Mr McCormick —Correct.
Senator XENOPHON —Does CASA have any views on that as a general rule, given what has occurred in the US? There are different views. We have people within Virgin saying something different, but is that something that causes you any concern?
Mr McCormick —Yes. If I can use the vernacular, it is not a good look. We are very cognisant of the fact that the skill set that we need in our senior managers, like Mr Rossiter and others, is very much the skill set that the industry looks for as well. So we are competing for the same people. In a place like Australia it is a very small pool. In fact, even going overseas there are a surprising number of people you know in the industry in other countries, because people tend to move around like that. We saw that earlier today with Virgin Blue’s new AOC responsible person. We are very cognisant from a governance point of view of what people are doing and any time that someone indicates to us that they are going to leave a senior position in the organisation to go somewhere else in the organisation or anywhere that would be a conflict of interest condition—
Senator XENOPHON —So when did Mr Rossiter advise you that he was going to Jetstar, do you know?
Mr McCormick —Me personally or—
Senator XENOPHON —CASA.
Mr McCormick —I do not know whether we have a record of that.
Senator XENOPHON —Presumably he would have given notice that he was leaving?
Mr McCormick —He would have given notice but when exactly he gave us that notice I am not sure.
Senator XENOPHON —Is there a requirement within CASA—or, indeed, the ATSB, Mr Dolan—that if an employee of CASA or the ATSB is going to go somewhere else for employment to advise CASA that they are going to an airline, for instance, from the date that they know that they have got that job?
Mr McCormick —From CASA’s point of view, yes, they would have to declare a conflict of interest.
Rural Affairs and Transport References Committee 31/03/2011 Pilot training, airline safety and the Transport Safety Investigation Amendment (Incident Reports) Bill 2010
Senator XENOPHON —Sure, and no doubt we will hear from you about that. I want to go to the issue of the CASA audit—and maybe Mr Rossiter can assist us on this. Jetstar out of the Darwin-Singapore flights operates to an exemption to CAO order 48, which relates to flight and duty time limitations. Mr Rossiter, at the time, on 18 September 2009, you were the manager of CASA Air Transport Operations Southern Region—correct?
Mr Rossiter —That is correct.
Senator XENOPHON —And you signed off on this exemption?
Mr Rossiter —Yes, that is correct.
Senator XENOPHON —You commenced work with Jetstar in—what was it?—December.
Mr Rossiter —15 December.
Senator XENOPHON —And just for the record, because it was raised by previous senators—I think I know the answer, but I think to be fair to you: at what stage did you apply for a job with Jetstar?
Mr Rossiter —I did not in fact have a conversation with Jetstar about any potential of even entering into a process until after the time of the signing of that exemption.
Senator XENOPHON —That was in October some time?
Mr Rossiter —The exemption was about—
Senator XENOPHON —The exemption was 18 September.
Mr Rossiter —Yes, 18 September. It was about three weeks after that that I first had a dialogue with Bruce.
Mr Buchanan —Can say a few things on this one?
Senator XENOPHON —Yes, but you can understand why I am raising it—because it was raised by some of my colleagues. I am quite satisfied with that answer, but I think it is important to put that on the record.
Mr Buchanan —But just to give a bit of context around the CAO 48 exemption: that is a document that was renewed for the fifth time by Mark. It is a document that exists for almost all airlines in the world. It is a pretty standard process it goes through. It is really to deal with the flight time duty limitations that were derived back—I don’t know—50 years ago and were not really thought through.
Senator XENOPHON —That is not quite right, though, is it, because there is a difference between international operations and those short-haul international operations? That has been one of the challenges to CAO 48.
Mr Buchanan —I am talking about the original ones. That is why you have the CAO 48 exemption which exist now, which is trying to deal with modern jet operations, RPT services and—
Senator XENOPHON —and the shorter haul international legs?
Mr Buchanan —A combination of both, yes.
Senator XENOPHON —Sure. I accept that.
Review these words in the context of the reference to Lying to Ourselves and you can see just how the system is slanted against those operating the line for a living.