A FAMILY member of the Angel Flight Mount Gambier victims has called on the Federal Government to ensure tougher standards for service community flights are swept in to prevent further tragedies.
Robert Redding – who is Emily Redding’s uncle – harbours doubts the new standards will be rubber-stamped by the Senate.
His comments follow the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) announcing a suite of changes for community service flights, which will affect the operations of Angel Flight.
The sweeping changes come less than two years since the doomed SOCATA TB-10 Tobago aircraft Angel Flight plunged into a paddock near the Mount Gambier Airport.
The Angel Flight tragedy in June 2017 took the lives of Mount Gambier mother and daughter Tracy, 43 and Emily Redding, 16 and Mount Barker Angel Flight volunteer pilot Grant Gilbert, 78.
Member for Barker Tony Pasin is expected to meet with CASA on the issue in Canberra this week.
Welcoming the new measures, Mr Redding warned they needed to be tabled in Federal Parliament and could be subject to a disallowance motion by a Senator.
“It will be absolutely unforgivable if another tragedy like ours occurs due to government inaction,” Mr Redding said.
With a Federal election looming, he expressed doubts whether the Coalition politicians “would have the guts” to push CASA’s recommended changes through.
“With the public eye on them, I suspect the government will want to avoid looking like a bully kicking around a defenceless charity organisation. They will probably just sit on their hands and not let it pass,” Mr Redding exclusively told The Border Watch.
“I’d love to be proven wrong on this and see the CASA recommendations put into law. I’m not holding my breath on it though.
“If Angel Flight cannot meet CASA’s recommended safety standards, quite frankly, I do not think they should be allowed to offer their service.
“All the goodwill in the world means absolutely nothing if it results in tragic outcomes like it has for us.”
He argued the general public probably perceived their organisation to be on par with the Royal Flying Doctor Service in regards to safety standards.
“Unfortunately, Angel Flight are nothing even close to it from what I understand,” Mr Redding said.
“It’s pretty much a lottery as to the experience level of the pilots and the reliability of the aircraft on offer.
“I have nothing but the utmost respect for the generous people volunteering their time and resources to the Angel Flight service; however, a sufficiently robust level of safety needs to be adhered to for the sake of everyone involved.”
If Angel Flight cannot afford to meet the recommendations put forward by CASA, Mr Redding said either the Federal Government should step in and offer financial assistance to do so, or the government itself ought to implement an equivalent assistance scheme for patients using the service.
“Surely this expense can be covered by the Federal Government… after all, seeing all the blatant pork-barrelling that goes on buying votes before elections, there’s obviously plenty of money to throw around for trivial things like ensuring adequate passenger safety on charity based flights,” he said.
Angel Flight chief executive officer Marjorie Pagani said CASA’s decision was an “attack on Angel Flight”.
She said the safety aviation watchdog had “rushed” the changes through without tabling it in both houses of parliament.
The Angel Flight executive also rejected claims there were safety issues with the organisation.
“There have been two accidents in the past 16 years with more than 46,000 flights,” Ms Pagani said.
Conceding the changes would create challenges for the organisation’s future, she warned they were not prepared to “give up”.
“We will not let them (CASA) get away with it,” Ms Pagani said.
She said Angel Flight only used CASA licensed pilots and aircraft and users were given extensive information about the service.
Grant District Mayor Richard Sage said yesterday he did not want to see the demise of organisations like Angel Flight because of new safety standards.
Mr Sage – whose council owns and operates the Mount Gambier Airport – said these services were vital for regional Australia.
He said services helped people attend medical appointments who could not afford commercial airline tickets.
Mr Sage said these people’s conditions were also not rated “high enough” to be transported by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is yet to release the final report into Mount Gambier accident.
