One has to wonder whether the man mentioned on 28th September was poor before he was forced to spend $8000 on a recorder, or only afterwards?
I can see some benefit from black boxes in light aircraft in cases where all the occupants are dead, although it's far from obvious that $8000 of recording device will bring as much safety benefit as $8000 of pilot training. But if the Transport Safety Investigation Bill becomes law, ATSB will be able to seize the black box recordings from any aircraft at any time even if there has not been an accident. You may share my revulsion at the idea of some bureaucrats sitting in their office sniggering at the argument you and your spouse had yesterday in the course of a completely uneventful flight.
If, like most pilots, you were not aware of the existence of the Transport Safety Investigation Bill until we told you about it, please tell us so by e-mail to jdawson@airsafety.com.au We are fighting some of the nasty provisions of this Bill in Parliament at this very moment, and it adds force to our argument when we can point out people who will be affected by this Bill yet did not even know of its existence.
In my opinion the Transport Safety Investigation Bill is the most threatening single piece of aviation legislation to have come before our Parliament. It will permit ATSB to search your aircraft and its contents at any time without a warrant. ATSB will be able to force you to dob in your co-pilot, or force your passenger to dob you in, even in respect of an infringement about which ATSB did not know. It is full of extreme penalties for trivial things. It is nasty, nasty, nasty - and it applies just as much to single-engine aircraft as to Boeing 747 airliners.
The obvious plan is to get the TSI Bill through Parliament while our small aircraft do not have to have recorders and we therefore don't feel threatened. Then, with the TSI Bill safely in place, recorders will be forced on us.
This Bill passed the House of Representatives on 24th September 2002 . Fortunately the Government does not control the Senate, and we are engaged in an 11th-hour struggle to persuade the ALP, Democrats, Greens and Independents to protect us by removing the Orwellian provisions from it. We need your help - so if you too are concerned, please send an e-mail to jdawson@airsafety.com.au saying you want to join up, or call us on 08 8276 4600.
Boyd Munro
QUOTE
ABC News on-line - Posted: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 5:13 AEST
The plane crash in Queensland's Whitsundays has
prompted fresh calls for light planes to be
equipped with black boxes.
Air safety investigators are now on Hamilton
Island trying to discover what caused a Piper
Cherokee plane to crash on the island on Thursday.
Six people died in the crash, including a New
Zealand family of four, an American honeymooner
and the Australian pilot.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) deputy
director Alan Stray says investigators may find it
difficult gathering evidence because the plane
caught fire after it crashed.
He says a black box would help provide more
information.
"When you have... a relatively intact
wreckage you can sort of piece together the jigsaw
puzzle a lot easier, but when you have an intense
fire which would be more than likely fuel-fed,
which destroys a lot of the evidence, that makes
the job very difficult," Mr Stray said.
He says the process would be easier if light
planes were fitted with black boxes.
"With technology changing the way it is,
there are more and more advances so that it is now
possible to get let's say, the poor man's recorder
for around $8,000 or $9,000, and so as technology
improves that type of equipment may become
available," Mr Stray said.
UNQUOTE
This appeared on the ABC news, Posted: Fri, 13
Sep 2002 0:20 AEST
QUOTE
CASA to investigate light plane recorders after
'ghost flight'
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) says it
will investigate the feasibility of installing
flight recorders in all small aircraft in
Australia.
It follows recommendations from the Western
Australian coroner investigating a plane crash,
which killed seven mine workers and a pilot.
The plane, heading for the Goldfields town of
Leonora, flew across the country on autopilot
before crashing on a remote Queensland property.
Coroner Alastair Hope says if there had been some
sort of inflight recording device, many answers
about the crash could have been available.
CASA spokesman Peter Gibson says fitting all light
aircraft with the devices would be expensive.
"Currently these small aircraft are not built
with flight recorders in them," Mr Gibson
said. ..."
UNQUOTE
The stage is now set for CASA to "suddenly
discover" that video recorders are not
expensive at all - they are fitted to many Sydney
Taxis already.
This proposal combines in a very sinister way with
the Transport Safety Investigation Bill, which is
to be debated in the House next Wednesday, 18th
September. That Bill robs cockpit recordings of
the protection they should have and will allow
tremendous abuse.
Why do we Australians allow ourselves to be
assaulted like this? It's one thing to play a
recording tyo find out what happened after all
aboard are dead. It is quite another to empower a
bureaucrat to seize a tape after a completely
uneventful flight on the basis of an anonymous,
malicious, and false phone call.
Airliners have voice recorders which only record
the last 30 minutes of conversation. What we
private owners are looking at here is video
recorders which record the entire flight (because
the Coroner found everyone died during the first
20 minutes, but the plane flew on for many hours,
so a 30-minute voice recorder would have captured
nothing at all).
I urge every Australian pilot to oppose the
Transport Safety Investigation Bill. Fax or e-mail
AIR SAFETY AUSTRALIA and we'll tell you how to do
so effectively.
LIGHT aircraft should carry black box flight recorders such as those in airliners, a Brisbane coroner said yesterday.
Electronic reporting devices – to pinpoint a plane's location after a crash – and the electronic lodgement of flight plans and passenger logs also would improve safety, coroner Michael Halliday said.
These improvements might help prevent accidents such as the light-aircraft crash that killed six people in far north Queensland three years ago, he said.
Mr Halliday yesterday handed down findings on the crash of the aircraft, which plunged into the sea between Mornington Island and Normanton in the Gulf of Carpentaria on November 24, 1999.
Pilot Andrew Anthonisz, 21, and five passengers – Nelson Gavenor, Andrew Marmies, Graham and Gavin Wilson and Olive Loogatha – died when the Karumba Air Services Cessna 206 ditched into the sea. The passengers were members of the Carpentaria Land Council.
Mr Halliday said no person should be committed to trial over the accident.
Despite hearing evidence that the weather had been rainy, Mr Halliday said he was not satisfied it was unsafe for the plane to take off.
No defects were found when the aircraft was serviced two days before the crash.
The hearing was told Mr Anthonisz was "truly an exceptional pilot".
Mr Halliday said it appeared Mr Anthonisz had lost control of the plane when it flew into low clouds and rain and he could not see where he was going.
The coroner urged the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to ensure that aircraft were fitted with an electronic reporting device to help searchers find crash sites.
The device could have helped searchers pinpoint the plane's location more quickly, Mr Halliday said.
He also recommended that:
• Light aircraft carry black box flight recorders to record conversations between pilots and air controllers.
• Aircraft carry electronic navigational equipment.
• All pilots be required to electronically lodge their flight plans and passenger details.
Mr Halliday said Karumba Air Services was slow to notify search authorities after the plane went missing, and he criticised the way authorities notified next of kin about the missing plane.
Mr Halliday said the Royal Australian Navy had requested a financial reward during the search but not during another search for eight people who died when a light aircraft crashed into the sea off Whyalla, South Australia, in May 2000.
Mr Anthonisz's father, Denis, said the family agreed with many of the coroner's recommendations.
"While we can't bring our son back, we're very pleased," Denis Anthonisz said.