Chastised Over One-engine Landing
Illawarra Mercury
Saturday July 8, 2000
The pilot of a Whyalla Airlines plane that crashed in May was earlier chastised for making an emergency landing rather than continuing flying with one engine, a tribunal heard yesterday.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was told Whyalla Airlines management wanted the pilot, Ben Mackiewicz, to continue flying to Adelaide with one engine rather than make a forced landing in January this year.
Whyalla Airlines asked the tribunal yesterday to lift a Civil Aviation Safety Authority suspension of its operations, saying it was losing $40,000 a week and faced financial ruin.
The airline has been grounded since the May 31 crash of a Piper Chieftain off South Australia's coast that killed all eight people aboard, including Mr Mackiewicz.
The tribunal was told that Mr Mackiewicz staged an emergency landing in January while piloting the same plane that crashed into Spencer Gulf, just 15km south of its Whyalla destination.
Mr Mackiewicz landed on Yorke Peninsula on January 7 after one engine failed during a flight between Wudinna, Cleve and Adelaide.
Ian Harvey, acting for CASA, told the tribunal the aviation body had expanded its investigation to embrace the entire operations of Whyalla Airlines.
He said circumstances surrounding Mr Mackiewicz's forced landing on Yorke Peninsula were being examined along with management, safety, rostering and turnaround times at the airline.
``Some pressure may have been applied to the pilot for not flying the particular aircraft on the 7th of January on to Adelaide with one engine," Mr Harvey told the hearing.
He said CASA's investigation should be completed before the tribunal could decide on a stay of the airline's suspension.
Whyalla Airlines lawyer Gary Hevey argued CASA had found nothing that warranted the continued suspension of the airline.
CASA was continually telling the airline its findings would be released soon, Mr Hevey said.
``CASA is stringing along the applicant (Whyalla Airlines) with `next week, next week, next week' and this applicant simply cannot survive in those conditions," he said.
Mr Hevey said the ``question with chastising of the pilot" and other issues surrounding the January incident had no relevance to whether Whyalla Airlines should be permitted to return to the skies.
Tribunal deputy president Brendan Burns adjourned the hearing until next Wednesday.
© 2000 Illawarra Mercury
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