Thread: UK exchange student who survived a light plane crash near Agnes Waters sues CASA.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

She was successful in getting her husbands death attributed to his war service in New Guinea (issuing of cigarettes), and got a War Widows Pension. I attribute her success in this to the efforts of Legacy.

Yes if you smoked and served you were automatically entitled to just about everything and my father started smoking due to free smokes during the war but gave up soon after he left the service - if he had continued smoking we would have got everything from DVA - no questions asked but as he had ceased smoking in the early 50s those rules did not apply.

My mum used Legacy and they are a great organisation but were not successful, we subsequently found out that we should have used the specialist consultants from the RSL as they are better able to work the system.

Garry

The only way that this claim can succeed against CASA is if it can be shown that CASA had previously found issues with the operator and failed to act or that CASA'a rules for flight operation were not correct and that the pilot followed those rules.

I am a commercial pilot but have not exercised the licence in over 30 years but in all my civil training (and as military aircrew) we were always taught to land straight ahead, with only minimal diversions to avoid obstructions, trade speed for height as appropriate - no sudden movements and minimal angle of bank.

On the basis of the story as published - I see nothing wrong with CASA's rules, maybe they needed to act before hand but it is not clear, the pilot seemed to have done the wrong thing but I was not there, so there may have been good reasons for his actions.

Any claims should be against the pilot and the company and tested in court but I dont think CASA has a case to answer.

Garry

Pretty much how I see it. Thinking back, I seem to remember a case where a plane going from Pt Augusta to Adelaide came down, and there was an attempt to blame CASA (or its predecessor). But I also seem to remember that as an RPT flight, where the responsibility of everyone is much greater.

That may have been Whyalla Airlines. I did a Chieftain endorsement with them in 1994.
The subsequent prang a few years later was only a matter of time.

Yes, that's the one! I'm sure that there was an attempt to blame the regulator for allowing them to operate, but I don't remember whether the regulator was sued or not.

Blimey! Was that the prang that dropped them into the drink in the Gulf with the loss of quite a few lives?

Seemed to take ages to locate the wreckage I recall.

Both engines seized???????????

Bit more complicated than that. Whyalla Airlines Flight 904 - Wikipedia

One engine failed with a broken crankshaft, the other failed later, perhaps due to the increased power setting to maintain height on one engine.

The ATSB had a strained relation with the coroner, and this and several other engine failures led to Airworthiness directives on that model engine, and some were recalled for defective crankshafts. The major result was the requirement for lifejackets to be extended.

I seem to recall reading an account of one bloke who headed for shore in the dark & apparently only just made it to land. I'm pretty sure it was this event but I will stand corrected. From memory it was to the Eastern shore?????



EDIT. SCRUB THIS, GOOGLE TELLS ME THERE WERE NO SURVIVORS. Must have been another similar Accident.