Equal treatment for all airlines
The Editor
Newcastle Herald
Dear Sir
I would like to refute the claim, which was repeated in your editorial of 9 January, that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority treats large airlines differently to small airlines. This falsehood surfaced again in response to the grounding of the NSW regional carrier Yanda Airlines. In particular, the treatment of Yanda was compared to the events surrounding the grounding of Ansett 767s before Christmas.
Yanda Airlines has been grounded as a result of a history of non-compliance with the aviation safety rules, including a serious incident in early January. CASA has not acted hastily in suspending Yanda - what we identified was a worsening safety trend within the airline over a number of years. In the interests of the safety of the travelling public it was time to act.
Ansett's situation is completely different. When Ansett realised it had a serious problem it voluntarily grounded its aircraft. Ansett then asked the manufacturer, Boeing, and CASA to find an appropriate and safe way to solve the problem. The airline openly admitted its mistake and is willing to take action to make sure the problem does not happen again. This is an airline willing to learn from its mistakes.
CASA does not ground airlines simply as a punishment for breaking the rules. We take that action to safeguard the travelling public from an operator who we believe is no longer putting safety first. If CASA believed a major airline was no longer giving the safety of passengers the highest priority, they too would be out of the skies.
Yours sincerely
Mick Toller
Director Aviation Safety