Merged: Norfolk Island ditching
 

Anyone have any idea when a preliminary report might be issued on this?

The whole thing seems to have gone very quiet and Max Clifford (or his Australian equivalent) is conspicuous by his absence in pushing the pilot(s) into any sort of money-making publicity ventures. For instance, I haven't heard even a whisper about any book deal.

Not much of a market for "how I sunk an aeroplane".

Rumour has it that a CASA report into the incident has been released to interested parties this week, not sure if it will ever be made public.

Hmmmmmmmm.... interested parties, let's see....RFDS? oh, and maybe ambos victoria.:hmm:

Were or are there any plans to recover the FDR?

Actually those involved Otto.:rolleyes:

Understand the FDR is under two kilometres of water.

Not sure on whose report it is, but have heard one is just about done and should be out soon.

How soon, well, how long is a piece of string?

Be interesting reading that's for sure.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to hear the CVR for the period + 10 seconds of touchdown.

And the pre-ditching briefing (and how long that took).

I find the following statement by the ATSB interesting

Following the event, the aircraft operator initiated a program of checking and revalidation for the company's commercial Westwind pilots.

One would have assumed that operating aircraft above 5700, they would have had a CAR217 organisation with a minimum of two checks per year.

Checkboard - that's only an initial investigation notification and not a Preliminary Report which normally follows the initial investigation. Then, after usually a loooong time, comes the Final Report.

HH - An ATSB source tells me it's in water at less than 500 mtrs and they (ATSB) have already located the wreckage and attached a line to it to facilitate later retrieval of the FDR and CVR.

CarR - close to the money from my same source.

I'm aware of that. Post was more of a "watch this space" ;)

From the link in post number 11:Has that been confirmed? That they 'elected' to ditch? As someone said above, I'm sure BASI are quite interested in listening to pre-ditching briefing on the CVR.

Well with all the "experts" on the telly saying what a top pilot he is, I'm sure he'll be busy sorting out which job offers to take up!:}

Heard through the font of all knowledge, the Townsville Refueller, that 3/4 mil spent on avionics upgrade etc in the month before it were sunk! :eek:

MTOW, what pre ditching briefing? :uhoh:

Capt Claret
Rumour from a good source has it that it hadn't been entered on the insurance policy.

The Dog:ok:

Interesting how this thread is ramping up fast again after the original one that was 'sunk'
Just goes to show that humans in general like to 'watch' even if it is thru the written word.:)
Whatever the reason/cause for establishing a new underwater aviation museum off our coast is lets hope we can all learn from others possible mistakes.


Wmk2

Even in 500M of water you need some serious recovery equipment and I don't know that the ATSB has the funding to permit such a recovery, especially considering there were no fatalities.

I doubt very much the FDR/CVR will ever be recovered, after 6 plus weeks in the water the data may already be irretrievable!

... and could there be a few - or at least a couple - of people who won't be too upset about that?

Ask the pax about the pre-ditching briefing given to them,,, They could pretty easily describe it I'm sure

I understand from my contact that a submersible robot was used to attach the line and some recovery straps.

I doubt if the ATSB would be going to the effort if they didn't think the recorders would be of some use. Time will tell, of course.

The insurers would finance the recovery, it is evidence after all.

Pel-air have an advert on AFAP for Westwind pilots, a few recent vacancies?

Can some one explain to me what the issue is that the Westwind/Pelair has with Noumea or has this been done before.What I understand is Jetcity does Noumea for Careflight with the Lear rather than Pelair.


Regards The Dog:ok:

Speaking recently to a local fisherman who tells me the aircraft is in water around 50 metres deep. Confirms it has been secured ready for lifting quite soon and which is expected to be a very straightforward operation.

Puff, I'm not seeing one.

morno

morno - quite correct I was on a work computer lastnight and I swear it was there, even showed it to someone. May have been an old cache or something - either way my error.
edit - i'm not going nuts just looked in the wrong spot -

Westwind Job

Well I was speaking to a local Norfolk Island beachcomber the other day, he said that on a really low tide parts of the westwind wreckage are easily visible above the waterline!

Stubbed my toe on the damned thing walking along the beach just the other day.

Must Have's
 

As well as experience and command hours the prospective Drivers must have washboard stomachs, rippling pecs, be tanned and willing to pose half naked with their 'undercarriage' protruding !

GobblyDook,
The job qualifications you refer to certainly mirrors that of the wreckage ......
Washboard stomach, rippled pecs (amongst many other things), tanned
(and rusty), (very) naked but certainly not with the ( protruding and stiff
) undercarriage down.

Are you taking the piss? :E

Do they also need to be good at swimming? :}

Float experience an advantage?

Oooh....ooooh.....Pick me! I haven't flown a jet but I have a floatplane endorsement. Surely that would be relevant? Or maybe floating hull?

On second thoughts, perhaps I need a non-floating hull endorsement.

Is that the usual procedure? When you consider the initial media interest in the story, if a report has been released to 'interested parties', surely a copy will fall into some journo's hands and we'll all get to see or read a (probably equally inaccurate as the first reports) shock jock journo's version of its findings?

...perhaps not quite so adoring in tone as the first reports and concentrating a little less on rippling six packs and toned pecs and maybe a little more on things like pre-ditching briefings, or lack thereof?

From what I have heard from 'interested' (read 'involved') parties, the report is quite mild compared to what has been discussed on this site.

One and only post on this from yours truly.
 

You've hit the nail on the head there Howard.
Just wondering if the individuals who insisted on slandering the dude/dudette in question will be up for offering retractions/apologies?

ATSB
 

Andu

CASA does not conduct accident investigations, however they will be waiting for the ATSB reort to determine if they can get involved.

ATSB investigates and reports in the interests of Air Safety and makes recommendations to reduce the likelihood of recurrance.

CASA are not particularly interested in air safety, their preference is enforcement.

ATSB will normally release a draft report to affected and interested parties.
This correctly gives the affected and interested parties the opportunity to proof read and advise of any inaccuracies in the report.

The final ATSB report will be clinical and make observations and recommendations. (They nailed CASA in the Lockhart River tragedy)

CASA will quickly take up any regulatory breaches identified except their own.

We seemed to have forgotten the Whyalla Air tragedy, where numerous "experts" formed numerous and wrong opinions as to the cause.

History tells us that Whyalla Air were some of the early victims of faulty Lycoming crankshafts
that had granular defects during manufacture leading to eventual catastrophic failure.

Food for thought:

• WX update indicates your destination now requires an alternate. You decide not to divert, even though you still have fuel to do so.
• Wx at destination crappy, remaining fuel used up during numerous instrument approaches.
• Cloudbase well below minima, but approx 300' AGL
• Flameout imminant, approaching minima!
• Considering poor command decision making earlier, the obvious may not have appeared obvious?

Anyone remember Avianca? :sad:

..........and engine mismanagement :=