Location:

CASA Media Release - Friday, 5 January 2001
NSW airline grounded

A NSW regional airline - Yanda Airlines - has been suspended from operations by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

This follows a history of operational problems over a number of years and a serious incident earlier this week.

Yanda Airlines was suspended from today until the completion of CASA investigations or the expiry of their Air Operators Certificate at the end of this month.

CASA believes there would be an immediate risk to safety if Yanda Airlines had not been suspended pending further investigations of breaches of the Civil Aviation Act, Regulations and Orders.

CASA's view is that Yanda Airlines has inadequate practices and procedures, training, personnel and organisational structure.

CASA is concerned that if the airline continued to operate further incidents may occur.

This week's serious incident occurred on Tuesday 2 January on a flight from Gunnedah to Sydney.

The pilot of an Embraer-built Chieftain aircraft carrying six passengers suffered difficulties in controlling the aircraft on take-off and requested the assistance of passengers to achieve stable flight.

The pilot has since confirmed that the trim was set incorrectly and this resulted in a high nose attitude. The aircraft was also inspected by CASA engineers and no mechanical faults were uncovered.

CASA has worked with Yanda Airlines since 1997 to identify and address safety issues and each individual issue has been dealt with satisfactorily by the airline. But CASA had recently expressed concern to the airline that further corrective action was necessary.

The identification of a range of shortcomings and this week's incident gave CASA no choice but to ground Yanda Airlines.

Yanda Airlines operate four nine-seat Chieftain aircraft on regular public transport routes between Sydney and Scone, Maitland, Gunnedah and Coonabarabran. The airline also operates charter flights.

Media contact
Peter Gibson
ph 02 6217 1015
mobile 0419 296 446
Ref: MR0101