Airline's Safety Under Scrutiny
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday June 3, 2000
Serious allegations about the safety record of Whyalla Airlines were raised yesterday, as police divers hunted for the Piper Navajo that went down off South Australia on Wednesday night with eight people aboard.
It has been revealed the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) reinstated the sacked chief pilot of Whyalla Airlines, Mr Kym Brougham, in April, despite finding in 1997 that he had failed to obey licensing conditions and to properly roster and train crew.
CASA confirmed last night that it approved Mr Brougham's return to the skies on April 12 after the replacement chief pilot, Mr David Usher, left the company, even though the company had breached regulations on at least two flights.
Mr Usher has begun legal action against the airline for unfair dismissal.
CASA spokesman Mr Peter Gibson described the breaches as technical and said the company was ``counselled". Neither had there been any reason to ground the company previously, despite at least two other incidents.
However, the chief executive of CASA, Mr Mick Toller, told ABC TV last night that ``Whyalla Airlines was grounded at one stage. Their chief pilot was removed and conditions put on their operator certificate."
Since then there had been close surveillance of the South Australian operation.
A team of Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators arrived in Whyalla yesterday to begin their investigation of the small, family-owned airline, which has had three known safety incidents in the past three years.
But the head of Whyalla Airlines, Mr Chris Brougham, vowed to resume flights within a week, rejecting safety allegations as ``grossly unfair".
He said at no time had Whyalla Airlines been grounded by CASA. He said the company acknowledged there had been several operational incidents involving two aircraft in the past five years, but in each case corrective action had been taken.
The most recent incident, in January this year, involved the pilot who died, Mr Ben Mackiewicz, and the same plane that crashed in the Spencer Gulf on Wednesday night. When one of the plane's engines failed in January, the flight was aborted and Mr Mackiewicz, 21, landed on one engine in a paddock.
Former CASA chairman Mr Dick Smith warned in 1997 that Whyalla Airlines should be grounded. ``It is simply unbelievable that this could happen. How could they let the bloke back in as chief pilot when they knew he was not capable?"
Mr Smith wrote to CASA acting director Mr John Pike on October 21, 1997, comparing Whyalla Airlines with Monarch and Seaview and concluding the company should not be running a regular public transport operation.
A Monarch aircraft crashed at Young, NSW, in 1993, killing seven, and a Seaview aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean en route to Lord Howe Island in 1994, killing nine.
The Herald has obtained a copy of the December 1997 CASA report into Mr Brougham.
The report was scathing of his attitude and abilities. Yet it was decided he was fit to resume in an acting capacity, and then as full-time chief pilot only 28 months later. The report said there had been 119 regulation breaches.
Mr Toller said yesterday the authority had taken appropriate action on safety concerns with the airline in 1997.
Relatives of those killed on Wednesday night were on the Whyalla shore yesterday as the search continued for the remaining six bodies.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald
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