The owner of Australian airline Transair has now been referred to the director of public prosecutions for failing to report safety incidents. The carrier was involved in a fatal crash in 2005.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has found that at least 25 incident reports had been filed by Transair pilots to the airline, but the operator had not - as required by law - passed them to the ATSB.
These include seven reportable events that took place at Transair between 1 July 2003 and 7 May 2005 when one of the carrier's Fairchild Metro III commuter aircraft crashed at Lockhart River killing all three crew and 14 passengers. The undeclared reports include gear failures, cabin pressurisation warnings and flap problems, says the ATSB, adding: "The failure to report these occurrences, which were reported by the relevant pilots to the operator, is indicative of a poor safety culture and poor safety systems." It has referred Lessbrook, the company which operated as Transair, to the public prosecutor.
Source: Flight International
