Doubts On Plane Refuelling Unbelievable, Says Coroner
The Age
Friday January 31, 2003
Adelaide
An Air BP worker may not have refuelled a Whyalla Airlines plane before it crashed into the Spencer Gulf on May 31, 2000, killing all eight on board.
But the Piper Chieftain aircraft had enough fuel to reach its destination and the refueller's actions did not cause the crash, an inquest was told yesterday.
South Australian State Coroner Wayne Chivell is investigating the deaths of eight people on Whyalla Airlines flight 904, which plunged into the sea when both engines failed.
Fazio Di Fazio, for Air BP, told the Adelaide Coroner's Court that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau agreed that the plane had enough fuel to get from Adelaide to Whyalla.
Mr Di Fazio said refueller Leslie Allen was ``still of the mind he had not refuelled that particular plane" when he got a phone call telling him the Piper Chieftain had crashed. He had also omitted an entry in his notebook, but later wrote that he had refuelled the plane.
Mr Di Fazio said the crash was ``an independent catastrophe unrelated to the fuel issue. But this does not exclude the need for inquiry and scrutiny on the issue of refuelling."
Mr Chivell said: ``I just find it unbelievable he had to think whether he did it or not."
The Coroner told Mr Di fazio he found it odd that he had labelled a claim by counsel assisting, Peter Eriksen, that the aircraft was possibly not refuelled as ``unjustified and unreasonable".
Mr Di Fazio said it was clear 234 litres of avgas was dispensed from an Air BP fuel tank on the night of the tragedy, but it was uncertain which plane was refuelled.
In its report, the safety bureau calculated the aircraft would have had about 131 litres of avgas on take-off, presuming none was added in Adelaide.
During the five-month inquest, the court heard that the left engine had a broken crankshaft and the right had a thumb-sized hole in a piston.
Before reopening its investigation late last year, the bureau concluded that excessively lean fuel caused the left engine to overheat and fail first.
But Mr Eriksen said the right engine had already experienced some loss of power because of the hole in its piston when the left engine collapsed because of serious steel deformities in its crankshaft.
Testing of the failed engines was completed at a Florida metallurgical facility on Tuesday. A full report from the US is expected in three to four weeks. Mr Chivell will receive further written submissions from all parties by February 28 before giving his finding.
© 2003 The Age
