All-clear Expected For Troubled Airline
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday June 5, 2000
Whyalla Airlines could be legally operating by the middle of the week, if as expected it is cleared by a Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) audit before the search for the wreck of Flight 904 and the bodies of eight passengers and crew has finished.
The company is about to get the all-clear after a snap audit which CASA officials say has found nothing to justify grounding the company. This is despite the emergence of several documents which cast significant doubts on the ability of the company's chief pilot, Mr Kym Brougham, who was barred in that capacity by CASA in 1997 before being re-approved only six weeks before last Wednesday's accident.
The Herald has obtained a report written for the CASA board in October 1997, which describes Mr Brougham as a man with little regard for aviation authorities and rules. The report, written by a senior Adelaide-based officer Mr Dick MacKerras, was followed two months later with an assessment of Mr Brougham that revealed almost 120 transgressions.
Claims also emerged yesterday that several politicians had lobbied on Mr Brougham's behalf to persuade the CASA bureaucracy not to go ahead with plans to strip the company of its licence.
The MacKerras report said there were ``a number of significant safety-related administrative failures", which he blamed on Mr Brougham. ``The chief pilot demonstrates a dogmatic resistance to many regulatory requirements, not because he is trying to gain financial or competitive advantage, but because he feels some sort of commitment to resist unnecessary fettering of his ability to enjoy aviation," the report said.
``There have been a number of attempts to encourage him to improve his performance, but to little avail. He cannot be said to be capable of continuing as chief pilot."
Despite the criticism, the report said Mr Brougham provided pilot training above the industry standard and ``spends a considerable amount on ensuring the continuing airworthiness status of his aircraft".
``He is well regarded by his employees and is not regarded adversely by his industry peers. In short, he cannot reasonably be assessed as anti-safety, merely anti-establishment or anti-authority."
CASA eventually agreed to let the company remain in operation provided Mr Brougham was removed as chief pilot. His replacement, Mr David Usher, stayed until April this year when he was sacked a dismissal he is fighting through the courts. CASA then approved Mr Brougham to return as chief pilot, but will not release the ``desk audit" it relied on to make the decision.
A spokesman for CASA, Mr Peter Gibson, said last night the latest audit of the company would be finished by tomorrow.
``At this stage we haven't come up with anything that gives us huge concerns," Mr Gibson said.
The company's managing director, Mr Chris Brougham, has rejected criticism about the company but said he had temporarily suspended all flights even though he was confident that the company's ``strict service and maintenance policy" would be cleared.
Meanwhile, police searchers armed with underwater sonar equipment have found equipment from the downed plane still missing in the sea off Whyalla.
Police confirmed yesterday that items, including a passenger seat headrest, a seat pouch and two pieces of aerial, were from the missing aircraft.
The items were salvaged late yesterday in the general search area, about 15 nautical miles south of Whyalla.
Police said the search for the plane was called off late yesterday because of choppy seas and 40-knot winds.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald
