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Truss: Aviation Safety Regulation Review

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Truss: Aviation Safety Regulation Review

Old 30th May 2014, 09:50
  #821 (permalink)  
 
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A three card Monte.

Even so: despite the mumblings, jiggling, rolling upward of the eyes (à la Bob Hawke) deliberate efforts to muddy the water; sideways rambling answers; an inability to answer questions; a marked reluctance to honestly answer the questions; taking questions on notice, ignoring the millions of dollars down the gurgler; aircraft still manage, despite these people sitting about, not answering the questions; to get from A to B in reasonably good order.

These folk in front of 'our' committee, being so completely divorced from the real issues still manage to effectively play the same three card trick – Safety – Cost – Deniability. It's we; the stupid, vacuous ones: WE who keep paying them to do it, allow this farce to continue. Yet the Senate keeps asking the questions (we also pay for that); round and round it goes; again and again and yet, again. Where it stops – no one knows. (Unless Truss brings in a 'company man' – then we'll know). 5/4, odds on favourite ploy - says the wise money.

Listen to McComic and his medical 'guru'; whom, despite logical argument, despite empirical and "that other sort" (cracked up when McComic trotted that out) of evidence", despite research, despite logic: and, despite Fawcett almost pleading for 'sanity' – in the end, out roll the three trump Monte cards. Like a mantra: chanted over and over until a hypnotic trance is induced.

Want to see 'real' safety at work ?? – hop into a cockpit one dark and stormy at peak hour, watch a pro aircrew manage; or go to the ACC and watch the ATCO's at work. Now that's operational safety at a peak professional level, despite the rambling obfuscation, distraction and interference of the puerile; and the disconnected lunacy of the 'watchdog' from La la land..

Mantra : Safety – Cost – Deniability......Safety – Cost – Deniability....Safety – Cost – Deniability.

Safety -? show me one 'real value' safety initiative McComic and his happy band of word twisters have produced. Save you the trouble – there ain't any. Nothing to which McComic has contributed one jot of 'improvement'. Improvement is lumped onto the industry shovel; the kudos and bonuses are (of course) heading to the CASA myth bucket, never to be seen again until claimed. In every case, through CASA 'safety initiatives' the paper work has increased, the rules have become an even more complex pension benefit fund for needy legal types. The ethos of 'safety' box ticking continues off the chart. The operator, being half broke – having then managed to satisfy 'all' the CASA 'safety' requirements and paid handsomely for it; must send their exhausted troops; those at the coal face, to see to the 'real' issues which keep Mr and Ms Joe Public safe and in one piece. This while documenting every step taken, (just in case there is a case to answer). Selah.

Cost -? well sure, CASA have managed to escalate the costs to epic proportions and achieved what precisely?. After the CASA fiasco, the operator must face the small challenge of trying to make enough money to pay wages, satisfy investment and deal with the never ending FUBAR which everyday operational aviation dredges up; on a daily (if lucky) basis....

Deniability-?; Oh, top marks in this category. The ability to offset the blame for anything and everything – from a loose boot lace to a major incident, to an ICAO rip-off. The abilities – to artfully deflect criticism – and, the hide to demand more money for doing so is a remarkable achievement. They are so very, very good at it – even ICAO have swallowed the bait FCOL.

Aye well; I expect they'll all want a bigger bonus next year and a better budget – on account of doing such a bloody fine job. No doubt AAAA have had a rocket from the 'bored' for being outspoken and no doubt registered letters, carefully camouflaging the intent to attack those who dared speak out are in the Friday mail as we speak....

So predictable, so bloody mundane, so tragically, so ironically sad. Yet this sad mutt has the audacity to take on the likes of a well briefed Fawcett, head on. Just about says it all; don't it?.
O! reason not the need; our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life is cheap as beast’s.
Lear, for a change of pace – it being Friday and all.....
Irony, Tragic: The term applied to the situation, in Greek and other drama, in which the audience is aware of some impending catastrophe or important fact of which the characters are either totally ignorant or not fully aware, a condition rendered possible by the fact that Greek drama dealt with legends known to all the spectators. Irony has, of course, in this phrase the Greek meaning of 'dissembling'.

Last edited by Kharon; 30th May 2014 at 10:16. Reason: Back of the clock + an ale or perhaps two.
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Old 30th May 2014, 11:45
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CAsA - The petard of aviation?

Yep, I am sure that 'CAsA' isn't actually an acronym, it is in fact another term for 'petard';

A petard was a small bomb used to blow up gates and walls when breaching fortifications, of French origin and dating back to the sixteenth century.[1] A typical petard was a conical or rectangular metal object containing 2–3 kg (5 or 6 pounds) of gunpowder, with a slow match as a fuse.

Etymology
Petard comes from the Middle French peter, to break wind, from pet expulsion of intestinal gas, from the Latin peditus, past participle of pedere, to break wind, akin to the Greek bdein, to break wind (Merriam-Webster). Petard is a modern French word, meaning a firecracker (it is the basis for the word for firecracker in several other European languages).

Petardiers were used during sieges of castles or fortified cities. The petard, a rather primitive and exceedingly dangerous explosive device, consisted of a brass or iron bell-shaped device filled with gunpowder fixed to a wooden base called a madrier. This was attached to a wall or gate using hooks and rings, the fuse lit and, if successful, the resulting explosive force, concentrated at the target point, would blow a hole in the obstruction, allowing assault troops to enter.

The word remains in modern usage in the phrase hoist with one's own petard, which means "to be harmed by one's own plan to harm someone else" or "to fall into one's own trap," implying that one could be lifted up (hoist, or blown upward) by one's own bomb.

It is plain obvious that CAsA, Infrastructure and the Miniscules office expel petard on a daily basis, don't you think?

'Safe skies are flatus skies'

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Old 1st Jun 2014, 21:43
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TICK TOCK miniscule - Academia warning!

The following UNSW blog piece highlights that there is a lot more at stake than just the GA sector...

We’re flying into an aviation skills crisis, with safety under the radar


Safety matters: a review into aviation safety regulation is due to report this month. Contemplative imaging/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

At a recent Senate Committee inquiry into the future of Qantas, both major airlines deflected concerns about the quality and safety of offshored maintenance with assurances that the facilities are safe because Australia’s safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), approved them.

Yet at precisely the same time another inquiry in which the effectiveness of CASA was central – the Aviation Safety Regulation Review – was being run out of the deputy prime minister’s office.

The inquiry was scheduled to report by the end of May. It now seems likely that given the difficulty and importance of the issues and the intensity of some of the industry submissions, the review will take longer. In an unusual move, the government has not made the 270-odd submissions available to the public.

Air travel, at least on the main intercity and international routes, is statistically the safest means of transport. Fatal crashes occur so rarely today, when set against the millions of passenger-kilometres flown every week, that the probability of any given flight ending in deaths is too small to be calculated by normal statistical techniques.

But the deadly runway crash of Asiana Airlines last year is a reminder to all of us – carriers and regulators included – that we cannot afford to take the safety of flying for granted. Accidents still do happen, and passenger safety is still not guaranteed even if there have been no recent crashes.

Indeed, a long period without a serious incident can increase the risk of safety buffers being eroded by cost-cutting and complacency.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently released its Safety Report for 2013 showing that across the world, 210 people lost their lives last year in 16 fatal accidents (not including hijackings or sabotage) involving commercial passenger or cargo flights. The average for the last five years was much higher at 517. While none of these accidents occurred in Australia, private and small-scale commercial flying here results in the loss of around a dozen lives in an average year.


CASA director John McCormick will leave the regulator at the end of August

Maintenance matters

A significant proportion of accidents result from errors or omissions in aircraft maintenance. According to the IATA statistics, maintenance “events” (i.e. specific operations that were done wrongly, or not done when required) contributed to 10% of the 432 accidents investigated between 2009 and 2013, while 29% involved some kind of aircraft malfunction. In other cases, shoddy maintenance procedures were identified as a “latent” factor contributing to the outcome.

In a time when intense competition is placing pressure on the world’s airlines to keep pushing down their operating costs, maintenance has been an obvious first resort for cost-saving, since unlike many other measures, it remains invisible to the passenger unless severely neglected.

Our research into the aircraft maintenance industry in Australia has exposed two key structural developments, both products of the increasingly cost-driven nature of the industry, which threaten to undo much of the progress made so far.

The first involves the worldwide trend to redefine the status of maintenance from part of the core business of running an airline to a standalone activity carried out by independent maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) firms. MRO is now a global industry, with hundreds of new businesses springing up every year in all parts of the world.

Most of these businesses undoubtedly provide quality service. But some, located in low-wage countries (including places like Latin America and the former Soviet republics which are still statistically the world’s most dangerous regions in which to fly) compete primarily on labour costs, often complemented by “light touch” regulation. They mainly do labour-intensive heavy maintenance, which is crucial for ensuring that aircraft structures remain free of cracks and corrosion.

The disastrous early US experience with such providers has left continuing question marks over this part of the industry. Even today, it is hard for airlines as customers to sort the good from the bad, among a rapidly expanding offering, without guidance from regulators. Indeed, Congress has forbidden US airlines to use “uncertificated” shops, and forced the FAA to upgrade its safety oversight of offshored maintenance.

By contrast CASA, leaving aside the occasional Senate inquiry, has largely enjoyed freedom from political pressure. But the shift to offshored maintenance has not been matched by a corresponding increase in resources allocated to safety oversight. Rather, there is a trend to accepting approvals from other countries’ regulatory authorities – in contrast to the more robust approach taken by the US.

There is also a growing tendency, in the words of IATA, to put “too much effort… into oversight of the documentation trail, rather than the work being physically performed on the aircraft”. Our research informants point to problems observed in some offshore MROs which would not be picked up by such an approach – for example, using non-approved tools in paint removal, which can damage aircraft skins causing tears in fuselages during flight.


The number of maintenance engineers Australia needs won’t arrive in time. Gerard Stolk/Flickr,

Looming skills crisis

The second, more insidious and less easily remedied threat involves worldwide underinvestment in developing an adequate skilled workforce to meet future maintenance needs. Both IATA and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have researched future maintenance labour requirements and expressed concern at the escalating shortfall. According to the ICAO, world training capacity in 2010 was falling short by some 18,000 places every year of the number required to meet forecast minimum needs in 2030.

Worryingly, the shortfalls in training appear to be greatest in precisely those parts of the world to which Australian maintenance is most likely to be outsourced. The Asia-Pacific region as a whole is projected to train fewer than a quarter of the new aircraft technicians it will need to accommodate the requirements of its own national fleets.

Australia is no better placed to meet its own needs, with civilian apprentice commencements, net of wastage, in the March quarter of 2013 at the lowest point since records have been kept. On our calculations, apprentice completions (including Defence) in 2013 were running at only two-thirds the rate needed to keep the workforce at its 2011 size after allowing for normal attrition.

All this suggests a looming skills crisis which is already becoming apparent in some parts of the world. The giant Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company (HAECO) – to which Qantas only recently outsourced the heavy maintenance on its remaining 747s – reportedly saw a 21% decline in its net profit for the first half of 2013, attributed largely to difficulties in recruiting sufficient skilled technicians. In the US, a growing proportion of airlines are planning to bring more of their maintenance back on shore, partly to ensure security of supply, and partly because of the shrinking cost differential.

Australia is unprepared to meet this crisis and faces the threat of being forced by its limited market power into relying on second-rate providers. It seems inevitable that the shortage will result in greater use of unqualified personnel, work intensification for those skilled engineers who are available, and skimping on internal quality control.

There is every chance that such practices, if widely adopted, will bring about a reversal in the declining trend of fatal accidents – this despite the range of failsafes and self-monitoring capabilities being built into the latest generation of passenger aircraft, which in any case now seem unlikely to make up a significant part of the Australian fleet for another decade at least.

The standards issue is one that can be addressed by regulatory reform, and it will be interesting to see how the inquiry approaches it. The skills issue is too big to be fixed by regulation alone, and a remedy cannot be expected without serious structural reform of the Australian MRO sector. Such reform will require a serious interventionist approach by the Federal government – a prospect about which it is hard be optimistic.


View the UNSW ASRR submission here: http://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore....2&subId=205572

TICK..TOCK!
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Old 2nd Jun 2014, 06:26
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* Red Flags *

In an unusual move, the government has not made the 270-odd submissions available to the public.
And
the Aviation Safety Regulation Review – was being run out of the deputy prime minister’s office.
Red flag number 1 - This action alone proves the Government is not interested in transparency or accountability. This should be ringing alarm bells for our industry, travelling public and other entities such as ICAO and the FAA. It is plainly obvious that the head of the fish is well and truly rotten.

By contrast CASA, leaving aside the occasional Senate inquiry, has largely enjoyed freedom from political pressure. But the shift to offshored maintenance has not been matched by a corresponding increase in resources allocated to safety oversight. Rather, there is a trend to accepting approvals from other countries’ regulatory authorities – in contrast to the more robust approach taken by the U.S
Red flag number 2 - Budget restraints have in the past stopped CAsA undertaking serious international audits and oversight of third party maintenance providers internationally. Taking people's word that maintenance is compliant flies in the face of robust and adequate oversight done on a physical basis. CAsA execs and can afford to go to Montreal every few months, but they can't afford to send Inspector Plod overseas for a guernsey at a maintenance org? Bollocks.

The below quote pretty well sums up what our masters of spin don't want the public to realise;
But the deadly runway crash of Asiana Airlines last year is a reminder to all of us – carriers and regulators included – that we cannot afford to take the safety of flying for granted. Accidents still do happen, and passenger safety is still not guaranteed even if there have been no recent crashes. Indeed, a long period without a serious incident can increase the risk of safety buffers being eroded by cost-cutting and complacency.
Indeed Miniscule, you and your minions are in a precarious predicament aren't you?

P.S Frank, nice photograph of Mr Angry above, would sit well on the back of your ****ter door!!

TICK TOCK Indeed

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Old 2nd Jun 2014, 09:16
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We're flying into an aviation skills crisis, with safety under the radar
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Old 2nd Jun 2014, 11:53
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004;


That's the bloke that bound me up in the first place. The natural laxative therapy that our small (m), minister provides works fine. However the photo does look like a cornered Koala. I wonder what would happen if someone poked him with a stick.

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Old 2nd Jun 2014, 21:20
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The rule of law is becoming a joke in the USA and we are following exactly the same trail as evidenced by the ongoing corruption enquiries in NSW, the activities of the Speaker, Peter Slipper, Craig Thomson and now Geoff Shaw in Victoria.

To put it another way, once the law becomes subservient to political ends, as it has been in those Three cases, then we are too far down the slippery slope to make investments without "managing" (read bribery) the political dimension as in countries like Indonesia and New Guinea.

In other words,, you can no longer invest with some certainty about country risk.

CASA, as a Government entity, has armed itself with the regulatory tools to destroy any business it likes, without bothering about the rule of law, and if government continues to countenance that, then the GA industry is dead, and in the longer run so is GFA, RAA and SAAA.

Why? Because we exist not by law but by the whim of the regulator.
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Old 2nd Jun 2014, 21:59
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BRB darts night.

Interesting BRB discussion developed last evening – started off with a small ceremony to change the dart board picture (thanks Sarcs)– the old one was in a hell of a state. One of the blokes was drawing the mustachios and idly wondered about how long it should take to evaluate the Reverent Forsyth's saga. More to the point, pipes up another, is how much of it will we get see? Good question that. Eventually, some consensus was managed :-

(Q) - Should the entire WLR report be published?

Pro – want it all out there, warts and all. A mirror to reflect just how untidy things have become and taking an open, honest approach toward rehabilitation.

Con – wanted only a 'broad' summary, expecting that at least part of the report must be confidential but with the key issues and proposed solutions made public.

10 votes for publish all / 5 for an 'edited' version. (BTW the betting went the other way).

Good argument for both cases which naturally led into speculation about the time needed for the miniscule to come to terms with the report he initiated. There was enough potential ordinance from the Pel Air inquiry to lead to serious change, add the 260 odd submissions to that and even the least astute, head in the sand politico is going to realise that something – not another bloody white paper – must be done. There is good advice available to Truss, he has the Senate team; and, even if the number of rejected submissions was 90%, that still leaves 26 rock solid tomes of first class, expert advice. Which, by the by, did not cost anyone one penny piece. Anyway – it finished up with agreement that the time taken to respond is irrelevant; if the time is used to make a proper response reflecting the gravity of the situation.

Don't expect to see too much 'blood' on the public mat though, there is little chance of public executions. Consensus was to watch for the small but significant changes happening as we speak – new faces in some places and small attitude shifts seem to be reflecting what is happening behind closed doors. Murky Machiavellian hit squad on the prowl? – perhaps.

Jinglie # DAS 31 "The elephant in the room has to be Forsyth in a caretaker role. MrDak obviously trusts him.
The notion of the Rev. Forsyth as caretaker provoked much discussion and speculation. This is intriguing; one of the BRB (smartarse with an I-pad) dredged up the post. No conclusions, but it supports a rumour (more of a whisper really). I noted that no one at the estimates said anything more about this being McComics "last" estimates, other than just the flat statement. Then there is the persistent buzz that his office door is only unlocked at morning tea when the tea lady throws in a handful of iced Vovo with orders to make sure the door is firmly relocked. Mrdak put in a long day, acting as bear leader and if you noticed, he is paying close attention to what his charges are saying. Some of the 'correspondence' and unsolicited advice floating about further fuels speculation. Is it that as the beast dies of it's own malady it is lashing out blindly at anything that moves and the handlers are being very careful?.

Aye well – it's all gossip and pub yarns at the end of the day, ain't it?

Toot toot.

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Old 2nd Jun 2014, 23:59
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D-day finally here!

From HoR Daily Program...
Tuesday, 3 June 2014 12 noon

Acknowledgement of country
Prayers
Ministerial statement, by leave
Mr Truss (Deputy Prime Minister) to make a statement on the Aviation Safety Regulatory Review.
Can be viewed here or here

MTF...


Links for ASRR:

Dept ASRR page

Executive Summary

ASRR REPORT

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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 02:23
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Here it is.

http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/avi...ve_Summary.pdf


It seems Pelair was an aberration.


First reading: recommendations need in depth analysis.
15.
19.
30 (b).
35?
37. Good news.

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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 02:33
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and the full report

To be found for download:

ASRR Report released by Truss | Assistance to the Aviation Industry

or direct from the Infrastructure site.

From the report:

Despite Australia’s good standing, the aviation industry is highly self-critical and regularly has a ‘take no prisoners’ approach to public discourse. While this critical introspection may contribute to its good record, it can at times be counter-productive to promoting rational public debate on aviation safety and to building a positive and collaborative national aviation safety culture.

The current relationship between industry and the regulator is cause for concern. In recent years, the regulator has adopted an across the board hard-line philosophy, which in the Panel’s view, is not appropriate for an advanced aviation nation such as Australia. As a result, relationships between industry and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) have, in many cases, become adversarial.
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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 04:00
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All I've done so far is read the exec summary and recommendations, but the two impressions that come to mind are that 1. It is surely a condemnation of the current directors performance and 2. The recommendations are really just about re-arranging the deck chairs. It is not recommending fundamental change to either CASA or the current regulations, rather further tinkering and " reform".

I think the report has failed to understand the cause, but is rather trying to treat the symptoms.

Sigh.
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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 04:11
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While your reading..

Ben's take so far...
Will the heads of CASA and the ATSB now resign?

Ben Sandilands | Jun 03, 2014 1:55PM | EMAIL | PRINT

The future tenure of the heads of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulator (CASA), its director of air safety John McCormick, and the chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) Martin Dolan should be in question after the release today of the Aviation Safety Regulation Review.

The review was commissioned by the deputy PM and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Warren Truss in November 2013 following a Coalition commitment during last year’s Federal election campaign.

It recommends what could be described as a profound cultural change in CASA and effective regulatory reform, more than enough reasons to remove McCormick from further involvement in the safety regulator immediately, rather than in September when his term expires, and by when regulatory reforms that he was charged to make in CASA were to have been finalised.

It is critical in a detailed and clinical manner of the current culture in CASA and its relations with aviation stakeholders.

The review, chaired by David described the botched Pel-Air crash investigation by the ATSB as an aberration.

Given the ATSB chief commissioner’s unequivocal defence of that report, and its standards, and his resolute refusal to even retrieve the flight data recorder from the crash site in the sea near Norfolk Island, and the claims that it was seriously unfair to the pilot, and failed Australia’s international air accident reporting obligations, Mr Dolan should go. This afternoon if possible.

A Senate inquiry into the ATSB report found Mr Dolan’s testimony under oath was so unsatisfactory that the committee devoted a chapter of its findings to its rejection of his evidence. It also heard the director of safety at CASA, Mr McCormick, admit to withholding from the ATSB contrary to the intent of Australian law, an internal review into the Pel-Air matters which found that had CASA actually carried out its duties of oversight of the operator, the crash might have been avoided.

These were very serious disclosures that went to the heart of the integrity and quality of the public administration of air safety in this country, although they were brushed off by the previous Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese.

This is what the ASRR says in its report in relation to Pel-Air.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has been heavily criticised in Australia for its report into the 2009 ditching of a Pel-Air Westwind off Norfolk Island. Canada’s Transportation Safety Board is completing a review of the ATSB and will report shortly. The Panel considers that the Pel-Air report was an aberration, and not typical of the high standard that the ATSB usually attains.

The Panel recognises that the ATSB is putting measures in place to prevent a re-occurrence. To improve the ATSB’s governance, the Panel recommends that an additional Commissioner be appointed, with extensive aviation experience.

The panel recommends a totally different non-punitive and more collaborative relationship between CASA and the aviation industry.

The current relationship between industry and the regulator is cause for concern. In recent years, the regulator has adopted an across the board hard-line philosophy, which in the Panel’s view, is not appropriate for an advanced aviation nation such as Australia. As a result, relationships between industry and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) have, in many cases, become adversarial.

It specifically recommends different qualities in the new Director Air Safety who will replace Mr McCormick, which on any reasonable reading, makes his continued participation in the affairs of CASA unnecessary, since the review repudiates CASA’s current culture and direction.

The Panel concludes that CASA and industry need to build an effective collaborative relationship on a foundation of mutual trust and respect.

Therefore, CASA needs to set a new strategic direction. The selection of a new Director of Aviation Safety should concentrate on finding an individual with leadership and change management abilities, rather than primarily aviation expertise.

If the government is to implement the recommendations of the ASRR it will need to remove Mr Dolan from the ATSB and McMcCormick from any further engagement with CASA.

(more to come)
MTF...

Posts #835-838 Hmm...Ben & I (at least) must be reading a different report?? Hint: Try actually reading from about page 70-90 for a true flavour of this report...

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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 04:13
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Does it make any recommendation re CASA considering the resultant cost of safety regulations? Or has been left out again? If so the Aus industry is doomed!
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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 04:43
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Dick, I have only read the recommendations & exec summary, but it seems to focus on refining the current structure and operation rather than substantively changing it.

We might have hoped it would call for a move to the NZ regs, but its not there.
We might have hoped that it would call for a significantly different board structure, but its not there.

While the reports that the industry complains about regulatory burden, there is nothing in the recommendation that seems to address this. Indeed, its call for amendments makes me fear that the hamster wheel is about to turn again and we'll get a whole new round of regulatory reform.
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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 05:05
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Old Akro...

The report does discuss adoption of rules from another country in Option 4 at page 101, and concludes that for a variety of reasons, the option is not recommended.

I think you've summarised the report pretty well though, that is, it's focus is on refining the current structure and operation rather than substantively changing it.
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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 05:16
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A report, some wet lettuce and a get out of jail free card!

On a personal note I will spend a day or two reading the report and recommendations thoroughly, however at this stage after a quick skim and some vomiting, as predicted, the wet lettuce leaf has been applied. Of course Skull and Dolan copped a hiding, that's because they were already dead men walking, and we all knew that. But the Frankenstein remains intact, the beast only receives a flesh wound and the morphing of this hybrid creature will continue unabated as long as the Iron Ring remain firmly entrenched (and this report does not indicate any change within the rusty circle)
The ATsB at its core is a solid unit. The 3 Commissioners need removing and the organisation returned to its stellar self from 5 years ago.
Fort Fumble is different, it needs an enema, gutting from its neck to its privates, and that has not been recommended.
Truss remains ignorant, Kingcrat remains at the helm, and as for industry and the IOS it is BOHICA time! The countdown clock keeps ticking, nothing has changed.

TICK TOCK
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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 05:35
  #838 (permalink)  
 
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It is interesting that the ICC is to report to the new CAsA Board which I read as cutting the chain of command and by-passing the DAS. One can only hope the ICC will be chosen by the Board. I further note the AVMED mob getting a rocket will disturb some in that little 'Principality' if the DAME is the final arbiter of whether or not the pilot is fit to fly. This could have meaning to the CVD mob who are now fighting an uphill battle because of our Prince Proozac.


I think the result forms the foundation for some meaningful change and public input is still needed to ensure the good there is implemented.


One thing that worries me is the constant evolutionary change of aviation technology mixing with constant regulatory change. This could inadvertently give credibility to the RRP which has been dragging on for years. The regulations need to be re-written to contemporary needs instead of refining and redefining rules from 1945. I think there is scope there in the recommendations.


At first look I'll give it a pass mark but hold the option to reverse this when the lawyers get to work and barstardise it. We all know they will.
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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 07:59
  #839 (permalink)  
 
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Report released: Aviation Safety Regulation Review

Aviation Safety Regulation Review

Link part way down the page to the report and Exec Summary.
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Old 3rd Jun 2014, 08:47
  #840 (permalink)  
 
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Dick,
The report explicitly rejects amendments to the CAA Act 1988, contrary to several previous strong recommendations.
As far as I can see so far, all that is recommended is a "strengthening of the RIS", which comes at the end of the regulation making process, not the beginning. Ergo, serious cost/benefit analysis doesn't get a look-in, let alone the principle that "regulation" is the last option, not the first.
I guess S.9 of the Act remains supreme, unless that is changed, nothing else of much importance will change.
Tootle pip!!

PS: Does this sound like CASA?? page 58 of the ASRR report.
2.4.4 If, on the other hand, the State safety oversight system is so rigorous as to amount to a complete domination and dictation of the conduct of operations, then under such an environment the civil aviation industry is not empowered with the responsibility and self-sufficiency for safe operations. This can undermine the morale of the civil aviation industry’s personnel and result in a lowering of safety standards. It could also be cost-prohibitive for the State to maintain the large enforcement organization required to sustain this level of oversight.
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