The ATSB has released a preliminary finding that states that a fault in one of the Air Data Inertial Reference Units (ADIRU #1) led to the incident. Investigations are continuing and QANTAS have instigated changes in their procedures should the symptoms appear again.

Well, guess what, the symptoms have appeared again! On Dec 27th, a QF A330 going from Perth to Singapore had a similar ADIRU problem in a similar part of the world (this time about 650 kilometers south of Learmouth). Fortunately the crew were able to enact the revised procedures and disconnect the systems, avoiding any upsets. They then decided to return to Perth.

The ATSB says it’s too early to draw conclusions but they note that it is the same problem and also that it occurred in a similar area to the previous incident. As such, they will include this incident in the investigations being performed for the Oct 7th incident which should produce a factual report about mid February.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Oct 7th incident is that the potential was raised for possible external influence on the ADIRU due to either portable electronic devices on board (laptops, mp3 players, etc) or from the Harold E Holt Naval Communications Station near Learmouth (there’s also a Wikipedia article on the comms station).

The situation gets even more interesting if you note that a Malaysian Airlines 777 had a similar ADIRU fault back in 2005 (PDF) in roughly the same area. Of course, the 777 has a different ADIRU, different software and the problem was traced to failed accelerometers and a software fault, but still – very interesting.

Hmmmm – I wonder if the military have been experimenting with something and accidentally zapping ADIRUs every now and again? (cue X-Files theme…).

Suffice to say, I submitted a comment to the newspaper:

Hi,

Is Paul Bibby trying to imply that RAAus is the reason for the increase in accidents this year? An interesting concept given that the aircraft involved in the 4 most recent crashes were in no way RAAus aircraft but were, in fact, covered by CASA and their maintenance, monitoring and training regimes (2 x Cessna 172s, 1 x Lake Buccanneer and a crop duster). Further, the two mid-air collisions in 2008 (Moorabbin and Bankstown) both involved VH registered aircraft that were covered by CASA, not RAAus.

So, while over half the fatalities were in the 0 – 2250 category, how many were actually weighing less than 544kg and thus governed by RAAus instead of CASA? It is also important to compare the number of fatalities against the number of hours flown. It may be that there are more deaths because people are flying more but that, over all, we’re having fewer accidents per thousand hours, etc. Paul’s report doesn’t supply that information.

Fewer regulations are not necessarily indicative of a lax safety attitude. In fact, fewer regulations that are easier to learn & follow often lead to a safer environment. It seems of late that CASAs view on air safety is that we’d be safest if no-one actually flew. RAAus has been working hard to safely get more people flying once again and it is no surprise that the Recreational space is growing while the CASA controlled flight training environments are shrinking.

The increase in aviation related deaths, while still tiny compared to Australia’s annual road toll, is a trigger that we should be reviewing our procedures & processes in general. From this review we can determine where it may be necessary to educate to address common factors or revise procedures.

Combining information about increased fatalities with references to RAAus having fewer regulations and wanting to increase its area of control only serves to make me wonder about Paul’s motives in writing this story.

Cheers,

Grant

The second accident was a crop duster crash that killed the pilot & sole occupant. No real news available on that one as yet.

Four accidents almost as many days may not seem like much to some but in Australia that’s a fairly high number. While there may be the odd accident here and there, lately there seem to have been a few (mid air at Moorabbin in August, mid air near Bankstown in December, other incidents in between, now these two and the ones around Christmas Day). I don’t have links to all the details at the moment but the number of incidents does seem to be on the rise.

While these reports are from general media and may not have all the facts, initial review leads to speculation that the first may have been “scud running” due to “press-on-itis” and the second may have been due to low flying. If so, it makes these accidents doubly tragic as they could have been avoided.

It’s important to read and learn from the ATSB safety reports as well as those from the FAA. Typically in aviation you don’t get a chance to learn from your mistakes (many being fatal) so it’s important to learn from the mistakes of others.

I’m counting on good flight training (practical & theoretical), learning from studying accident reports and generally asking myself “How will this look in the news?” to help me learn good judgment when flying. Of course, I’m really safe in my flying at the moment – I haven’t got the time or money to go flying – small consolation…

Training was held for Balloon Sunrise pilots & crew out at the Balgownie Estate winery in Yarra Valley. Karen & Robyn were our trainers and it was a lot of fun. Things are certainly easier than when I first got basic training back at school. Apparently they found people were taking too long to sort things out and not getting into the important bit (CPR) soon enough. Then there were also the legal aspects where people were paranoid about getting their asses sued if they tried to help, etc.

So, now it’s easier – yay :)

It all comes down to a handy mnemonic:

Danger
Response
Airway
Breathing
CPR
Defib

Some things haven’t changed, including the recovery position and using the Little Annie practice doll thingos – although now you get to use a funky face thingo that fits on and there’s one per person – gotta watch out for those body fluids, ya know :)

All up, a lot of fun and educational – ya can’t beat that!