Minister for Air Safety Needs More Safety....
 

‘Wheels-up’ landing puts air safety minister’s flight in peril
JOE KELLY, The Australian
December 15, 2017 7:25am


From today's The Australian'......

THE cabinet minister responsible for air safety was involved in a “wheels-up” landing after the pilot became distracted by a mobile phone and failed to lower the landing gear, in what the regulator dubbed a “serious incident”.
Transport Minister Darren Chester was travelling in the back seat of the light plane on a Nov*ember 10 flight from Essendon to West Sale in regional Victoria, The Australian reports.
He realised the pilot had not lowered the wheels only when he heard the belly of the Cessna 337 scraping along the runway.
The incident was reported immediately to transport safety regulators, who were faced with the unusual decision of considering whether to mount an investigation into an incident involving their own minister.

HA HA HA HO HO HO..........

Missed the nice 'squelch' of tyres on runway....& the Primary School and the Kindergarden etc, but didn't miss the ground....


Gravity wins again.....
Cheerrsss...:eek:

Calm down Griffo me old...!

It was only a 337 now, wasn't it?:D:E:}

Never mind the mobile...whatever happened to the brain on short, short final..."Rich, Fine GREEN down...LAST chance" !!

VERY pleased to hear that it missed the Kindy....CAsA have a real thing about putting the kiddies at risk. Its a definite safety hazard in their books, altho Ive never heard of it ever happening in Oz since flying machines turned up on the scene.

G'day Pinky,

YEP...Only an 'old' 337, however, I did read that it was owned and flown by da pahlot who, it was reported, was 'distracted' by a mobile phone call.....he did NOT answer the phone reportedly, but was distracted by it.....

Even in a 337, one can still look out the bloody window and see if there's a big black thingie hangin out down there.....Oh, and dem green lights....

"PUFF'..."

Sad for the guy flyin' really....
Cheeerrrsss...:ok::ok:

All jokes aside, WTF was a Government minister doing in the back of a 337? One presumes that it was a private flight?

Going back many years, the RAAF were concerned about the steady loss of pilots to airlines (maybe still are?) To encourage their aircrew to sign up for further service, the RAAF allotted each desk-bound pilot a set amount of money each year so they could keep current using flying school charter aircraft.
A Memo was circulated warning those taking up the offer they should not expect the same high standard of aircraft serviceability they received when operating RAAF aircraft. Anecdotal evidence revealed the warning was realistic and certain GA operators were avoided. Poor maintenance became a more serious concern when high ranking RAAF Chiefs were using these aircraft for transportation to minimise costs rather than use aircraft from the VIP squadron in Canberra

It’s a twin engine plane isn’t it?

Should have gone with the C3336!

Does Bob Hussey still own the charter company in Bairnsdale?

circa 2005

NZ PM hurt in mid-air drama - World - www.smh.com.au

Is there anyone who hasn't had one or more Piper doors come ajar over the years ? The report is a tad over-sensationalist I think ... A bit of sideslip and they close without too much difficulty .. more interesting if you are one up but no real drama.

What year would that aircraft have come off the production line?

The 337 Cessna!

Bob departed life some years back unless I am horribly mistaken.

RAAF pilots posted to a desk still get a credit card with flying money to spend at the local airfield.

What’s your point? It’s good enough transport for pleb taxpayers but not for the pollies paid out of those taxes?

In that case, buyer beware:D

Depends on what sort of Piper. Long time back I hired a battered old Apache from Essendon and had difficulty closing the door. It came with an elastic band to keep the internal handle in position. On final at Moorabbin the door came open. I was in the RH seat and despite side-slipping as JT said while simultaneously trying to close the door, it remained open causing serious tail section buffeting. The owner went ballistic after I snagged the defect in his maintenance release. Same owner used to reduce the nose wheel tyre pressure to a very low pressure on his Cessna single to minimise severe nose-wheel shimmy which had been evident for months. :ugh:

Good thing you didn't look too closely at that Apache Centaurus, who knows what else was being held together with elastic bands inside!! :P

I think the point was that this a very old aircraft .

Message. Australian charter operators can’t afford to operate modern aircraft. Imagine if your Uber car was this old!

I don't think the age of this aircraft had any part to play in this event - I am sure we can find a few examples of very new G58's having forgetful gear problems.


As for gear up landings - I heard that when the DOA (now CAsA) had their own aircraft, the only one they did not do a gear up landing in was the F28. I would not be surprised to have that fact checked and found to be true.

I don't know if it was confirmed but it was rumoured that a helicopter pilot received a phone call during his pre-flight, this distracted him and he failed to see the fuel cap latch had not been latched. This lead to a massive inflight fire and explosive crash landing. In hospital with massive burns he asked a friend to get me to check the fuel cap - he died a week later from his burns.


Maybe switch phones to flight mode when doing flight related duties would be a good idea - it should not need to be a regulation.

Bend A Lot,
I am reminded of the DH-125 gear up at Avalon.

First signal through the Henty House (those of you who have been around a while will know Henty House) cause much rejoicing among the assembled Department of Civil Aviation staff, along the lines of "at long last Qantas have done it, now we will be able to stick it to them ----".

The rejoicing was somewhat premature, the next signal showed it was the DCA -125, not either of the Qantas aeroplane.

If CASA is true to tradition, this little charter outfit hasen't much of a future. The Australian "aviation law" has no provision for human error, and no public misdeed can be allowed to go unpunished.

Tootle pip!!