How Crash Airline's Pilot Got His Job Back
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday June 12, 2000
Whyalla Airlines persuaded aviation authorities to reinstate its chief pilot weeks before the crash that killed eight people, despite an official finding that his attitude to safety amounted to ``a fundamental incompatibility" with his position, and was unlikely to change.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority yesterday grounded the airline indefinitely, 12 days after its twin-engined Piper Chieftain plunged into South Australia's Spencer Gulf.
But it is now likely that CASA's reinstatement of Mr Chris Brougham, who is also the airline's owner, will be an issue at the investigation into the crash.
In a statement last night explaining the grounding of Whyalla Airlines, CASA said Mr Brougham had taken on too many duties.
A CASA safety audit, done since the crash, also found that the airline may not have kept accurate flight records and that it had placed a heavy workload on its pilots.
The Herald has obtained a nine-page letter, sent to Mr Brougham at the end of 1997, which sets out a series of safety concerns.
The letter, from CASA's South Australian flight operations manager, cancelled CASA's approval for Mr Brougham to be chief pilot.
It referred to a near-crash in 1997 when a Whyalla Airlines pilot forgot to lower his landing gear on approach to the Whyalla runway. The wing flaps scraped the ground and were badly damaged before the pilot regained height.
Mr Brougham failed to report the mishap to CASA authorities, as required by law. It was only discovered when a CASA inspector noticed the plane under repair. Mr Brougham later claimed that it ``did not involve a serious safety issue", which brought him a scathing rebuke in the CASA letter.
It said: ``It is indicative of an attitude towards clear indicators of safety failures that is totally inconsistent and unreconcilable with the necessary judgment and attitudes required of a chief pilot ...
``I believe your approach to this incident demonstrates a fundamental incompatibility with the role of chief pilot. I further conclude your attitude is unlikely to change."
Other safety failures set down in the 1997 CASA letter to Mr Brougham included:17 occasions when take-off weights were not calculated.Three occasions when maximum take-off weights were exceeded.Two instances where aircraft centre of gravity limits were exceeded.Thirty-four instances where the calculated take-off or landing weight was wrong because of mathematical errors or omissions.
The letter said that, Mr Brougham, as chief pilot, had ``continually demonstrated an attitude and approach" not compatible with the demands of his position.
A CASA spokesman said last night that Mr Brougham was reinstated as chief pilot in April after CASA decided he had made ``a significant change of attitude" and had ``improved his outlook" about the need to observe flying regulations.
CASA had taken account of Mr Brougham's history as chief pilot.
The former chairman of CASA, Mr Dick Smith, wrote to the Federal Transport Minister, Mr Anderson, at the weekend demanding that United States authorities be called in to investigate the Whyalla crash and the accident in which a Qantas 747 ran off the Bangkok runway last September.
Mr Smith said the US National Transportation Safety Board should be put in charge of both investigations because a ``mates' network" operating between Australian aviation authorities and the airlines meant that unbiased and accurate reports would not be produced.
Mr Smith resigned from CASA last year after losing faith in the minister's resolve to crack down on smaller airlines.
Mr Brougham, speaking in Whyalla after yesterday's memorial service for the victims of the crash, said CASA had been forced to ground his airline because of political pressure.
``In any other circumstances, if we had not had an accident 12 days ago, the reasons they have now given [for the grounding] would not be good enough," he said.
However, Mr Brougham could not be contacted last night regarding the 1997 CASA letter.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald
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