The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has recognised respected Australian aviation author and editor, Macarthur Job OAM, by dedicating its new media studio in his honour.
Earlier this year, the ATSB developed an in-house capability to provide media outlets with video and audio content for inclusion in their news coverage on transport safety investigations. The studio is located within the bureau’s central office in Canberra.
ATSB Chief Commissioner Greg Hood officially named the facility the Macarthur Job Studio during a ceremony on 30 October, attended by his widow, Esma Job, along with three of his five children.
“When it came to naming our studio, Mac’s name came to mind immediately, ”Hood said. “Mac was a pioneer of aviation safety messaging in Australia, editing the principal safety promotion publication of Department of Civil Aviation’s Air Safety Investigation Branch – the Aviation Safety Digest.”
“For 14 years, Mac edited and contributed to the Digest, known in aviation circles as the ‘crash comic’, and he later became a highly regarded author on aviation safety with his highly acclaimed Air Crash and Air Disaster book series.”
Job, who died in 2014 aged 88, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to promote aviation safety in the 2003 Queen's Birthday honours list. He was also credited with finding the crash site of the DC2 Kyeema, which struck Mount Dandenong in Victoria in 1938. His book Disaster in the Dandenongs recounts the accident and the fall-out that changed civil aviation in Australia forever.
“I am deeply honoured to be able to dedicate our studio in memory of Mac,” Hood said. “The legacy of his professionalism and skills in amplifying important safety messaging derived from accident investigations will always be remembered by the ATSB."