Safety authorities cop blame over Norfolk Island plane crash

Safety authorities cop blame over Norfolk Island plane crash

Updated May 27, 2013 14:19:00

A plane crash off Norfolk Island was blamed on the pilot but a new report suggests authorities should shoulder some of the blame.

Source: 7.30 | Duration: 6min 51sec

Topics: air-and-space, norfolk-island-2899


LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: When a medical evacuation flight ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean off Norfolk Island one night in 2009, six people were extraordinarily lucky to survive.

Air safety investigators blamed the pilot.

But a Senate committee report released today has reached a very different view. It's been scathing about the role of the regulators, saying the Civil Aviation Safety Authority was partly to blame and covered up its own failings.

The committee says it's report is going to the Australian Federal Police.

Adam Harvey reports.

ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: A routine medical flight that ended in near disaster. This twin-engine jet, operated by Pel-Air, was bringing a patient from Samoa to Melbourne via Norfolk Island. It never made it.

After several aborted landings due to bad weather, pilot Dominic James made the toughest decision of his career. On the darkest of nights, he dropped the aircraft right into the rough South Pacific.

All onboard survived, thanks to the pilot's skill, the bravery of the local Norfolk Islanders who plucked the survivors from the sea and a very large dose of luck.

But the long-term consequences of that night have been devastating.

CareFlight nurse Karen Carey's nerves were torn away from her spine.

KAREN CAREY: I feel extremely lucky that I'm here with my family and my children, but there are days where the pain is so excruciating that I would sometimes close my eyes and wish that I would have just passed.

ADAM HARVEY: Pilot Dominic James' reputation was trashed.

DOMINIC JAMES, PILOT: I've had to sell the place that I lived in. It's cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend my name and my reputation. It's been a huge cost to those around me, both professionally and my family.

ADAM HARVEY: In a report three years in the making and released last August, air safety investigators blamed the pilot. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said Dominic James did not load enough fuel in case of bad weather and he should have diverted to the nearest runway in Fiji before it was too late.

DOMINIC JAMES: It was a popular perception that I was reckless, careless, negligent and I was none of those things. I did some things on that night that I wish I had done better, but by no means was it warranted to rest the cause of the accident solely upon me.

ADAM HARVEY: Today in Canberra, a Senate committee handed down its own report and pointed its finger at Australia's air safety authorities.

NICK XENOPHON, INDEPENDENT SENATOR: Our agencies are not up to scratch. This goes beyond one incident - let me emphasise this: this goes beyond Dominic James, who I regard and many others regard now after this report as a scapegoat for the failings of CASA and the ATSB.

DAVID FAWCETT, CHAIR, TRANSPORT COMMITTEE: The ATSB report glossed over all of the systemic factors which clearly played a role in the lead-up to the accident.

ADAM HARVEY: Pel-Air had problems and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority knew it.

DAVID FAWCETT: The company itself, their own training, their fuel policies, their supervision of the pilots, the support they provided - all of those came out very clearly in the special audit that CASA conducted after the accident. The ATSB report essentially said the company was doing the right thing, CASA was doing the oversight and there was no evidence of fatigue.

ADAM HARVEY: The report says CASA and the ATSB worked together to make each other look good.

The committee says CASA withheld crucial documents critical of Pel-Air. That's potentially a criminal offence.

DAVID FAWCETT: It could even be seen to have breached the Transport Safety Act in terms of obstructing an investigation.

NICK XENOPHON: The fact that the committee felt that this should go to the AFP for further consideration I think speaks volumes.

ADAM HARVEY: Former CASA deputy director Mick Quinn pushed for the Senate inquiry and has been supporting pilot Dominic James. He says CASA and the ATSB have gone from being rivals to conspirators.

MICK QUINN, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CASA: So the pendulum's swung from one bad aspect where the two organisations were at each other's throat to now where it appears, according to the Senate report, that they seem to be in bed together and we need to be back at the centre. These two organisations need to be at arm's length.

ADAM HARVEY: Nick Xenophon says the safety authorities can't be trusted to act in the public's best interest.

NICK XENOPHON: This inquiry has shaken my confidence in the ATSB and CASA to the core. I no longer have confidence in them. That's why I think we need to inspector-general of aviation so that we actually have an independent body that can oversee what they do and how they do it.

ADAM HARVEY: Dominic James is back in the air and is slowly rebuilding his career. But any regulatory changes aren't much comfort for Karen Casey.

KAREN CASEY: There's the operator, there's the investigative system and then there's regulators and I feel that all three failed me. ... If the correct systems were in place for safety and the correct monitoring and auditing were in place, I believe that this would not have happened.

LEIGH SALES: Adam Harvey reporting.