I had refused to believe that even CASA was capable of such a disconnection from reality, but there it is in documents disclosed to a Senate Committee: An email dated Friday 6 October 2017 from some CASA jobsworth with the title “Certificate Team Manager”:
We need to be careful in what is discussed with Dominic as the draft final report into the Westwind accident is protected under S32 of the TSA.
For [name redacted, but the numpties left Dominic’s name in the first sentence] to be asking “how his judgement in flight from on November 18 2009 is still under question” shows he still doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation and his part in it.
The draft final report makes it clearer that [I wonder who’s name was redacted] lacked good decision making skills at that time and since then CASA has been given no evidence that that has changed.
I do not want to keep [guess who] from returning to a command role but believe the only way we could be satisfied is to continue with the assessment as planned in the F20 simulator.
[I wonder what name’s been redacted here] does not accept this from me so perhaps a response from a more senior manager may be appropriate.
8 years on, and they are
still punishing this guy. 8 f*cking years.
Some jobsworth who evidently has no idea what section 32 of the
Transport Safety Investigation Act does - but is sure s/he does know - presumes also to know “the only way” that “we” could be “satisfied” of something. (I wonder whether the jobsworth pondered whether Dominic might also have been given access to the draft report. After all, he might have some passing interest in the content.)
The poor jobsworth is desperately trying to let Dominic return to a command role, but - alas - the safety of air navigation
demands otherwise. It must be a truly
terrible dilemma for someone shouldering the burden of aviation safety.
The scary thing - the
really scary thing - is that this jobsworth almost certainly believes s/he is doing the right thing.
Astonishing.