The week just past may be remembered in Australia as the turning point in the fortunes of aviation in this country. A series of good-news stories rolling out of Canberra displayed a willingness to change on behalf of government, and a recognition that a long barrage of complaints had to have some merit.
Oddly enough, Australian aviation's good-news week started in Canada when the Canadian TSB published their review of the ATSB. Comparing ATSB methods over three investigations, it found that they failed miserably to apply good practice to the Pel-Air Norfolk Island ditching investigation. That they found little else wrong with the ATSB but that begs (and fails) to ask why that particular report and no other? Had they found regular, serious systemic issues you would write-off Pel-Air as just another instance of mismanagement, but as they didn't, we can't. My love of a good conspiracy theory drives me to smell political interference.
The applause from that had barely died down when Warren Truss rose in the lower house to deliver the government's response to the Forsyth Report. For aviation's movers, shakers, lobbyists and supporters, the response was effectively vindication that the struggle they have been through was right. The government response gives new Director of Aviation Safety Mark Skidmore a mandate to return CASA to a position of respect and integrity within aviation. It demands a culture change, better engagement with industry, less Draconian measures, a system of regulation built on justice and a new era of accountability. In the shortest possible words: Warren Truss wants the second "A" in CASA to have meaning. So, now we the aviation industry have 80-90% of what we wanted, what are we going to do next? The time for agitating and non-co-operation appears to be over. It's OK for the government to embrace reform, but the industry has to get in on the group hug or next year we'll all still be complaining. The sun has shone ... let's make hay.
Certainly there is one man in Australia who is feeling the sun on his face this week: Dominic James. Since the ATSB squarely blamed him for ditching Westwind VH-NGA off Norfolk Island in 2009, he has been working hard to get the ATSB to withdraw the report and straighten out some anomalies in the reasoning and look a lot closer at the systemic failures. This week, the government has agreed with James, and stated in parliament that it will ask the ATSB to consider re-opening the investigation. After the damning senate inquiry and the Canadian TSB review, this call should be enough to sway the commission to withdraw the report and this time do it properly.
And we finally have the last three members of the CASA board. It has been a while coming, but the new look board now has a good mix of aviation people and governance experts that are capable of exerting full control over CASA. The previous board remained too anonymous to be able to gauge their performance, except to say that a good board is not anonymous. Mid next year, we can expect the board chair to pass to respected aviation identity Jeff Boyd. Not a lot of bad news there, either.
Where bad news did come from was the loss of Gordon Rich-Phillips as Victorian Minister Responsible for the Aviation Industry. With the change of government last weekend, Australia lost its one and only aviation minister. Whether or not you are Liberal or Labor, Gordon did some fantastic work for aviation, fueled by an enthusiasm for general aviation. His work improved the lot of the general public in regional Victoria with significant airport upgrades that would enable air ambulances to operate from airfields previously excluded. We all owe him a vote of thanks.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch