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CASA Media Release - Sunday, 11 June 2000
CASA grounds Whyalla Airlines

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has taken action to ensure that issues uncovered during an in-depth audit of Whyallla Airlines and its maintenance organisation are resolved before the airline flies again.

The Managing Director of Whyalla Airlines, Chris Brougham, has agreed to address the issues before restarting flying operations.

To formalise this, CASA has served a notice on Whyalla suspending the airline operator's certificate. The suspension came into force on Sunday 11 June 2000.

CASA's audit found Whyalla Airlines:

  • placed a high workload on its pilots during ground turn-arounds
  • may not have maintained accurate flight and duty time records; and
  • allowed the chief pilot to carry out too many duties.

The audit of Whyalla Airlines was a previously scheduled annual audit carried out in-depth over the last week.

It included inspecting the airline's place of business, checking aircraft, examining documentation and interviewing pilots.

The audit involved a number of procedures in addition to those normally carried out during a periodic inspection.

CASA is continuing to investigate the issues raised by the audit and has advised the airline of its obligation to address areas of concern.

CASA will not allow Whyalla Airlines to operate aircraft until all the issues raised by the special audit are fully resolved.

CASA is not investigating the crash of VH-MZK - this is the responsibility of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. The issues raised by the audit of Whyalla Airlines should not be seen as reflecting on the crash investigation or, on current information, as being connected to any possible cause of the crash.

Media contact
Peter Gibson
ph 02 6217 1015
mobile 0419 296 446
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