THE end of Angel Flight is inevitable if the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has its way, according to Graeme Burke, who has flown for the charity for the past 15 years.
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CASA has put forward a discussion paper on safety in “community service flights” for public comment, and new safety standards and regulatory constraints are included.
Mr Burke fears the worst.
Angel Flight works across regional and rural Australia to provide free non-emergency flights for people facing bad health, poor finances and long distances.
Mr Burke has volunteered his time, his plane, and his fuel to the charity over the 15 years, and said he has real fears the charity will be “devastated” if the changes are implemented.
“The discussion paper’s no more than a smoke screen,” he said.
“I just think they’ve already made their decision ... if they implement all these changes that’ll be the end.”
Angel Flight chief executive officer and founder Bill Bristow said the CASA discussion paper has caused fear and concern in the charity and among its volunteers.
“[It] will force Angel Flight to take full responsibility for training [their] 2800 pilots, and be accountable for their planes and aircraft maintenance,” he said.
“We would have to cease as a charity and become a bureaucratic aviation organisation.”
Mr Burke believes an Angel Flight accident on August 15, 2011 in Victoria that killed three people could also have contributed to CASA’s proposed safety changes.
“When people were killed in Victoria doing an Angel Flight, I thought then ‘this will be the death of it all’,” he said.
While some changes to standards were enforced by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau following the fatal accident, Mr Burke said society’s “path of litigation” has also had an impact.
“It’s just a very, very sad way we seem to be going, we hide behind safety ... it’s just overboard, we’re strangling ourselves in red tape.”
While the deadline for all community submissions is October 10, 2014, Mr Bristow said this means they are being asked to continue flights under a “dark cloud of uncertainty”.
CASA rejected suggestions it is proposing to impose “crippling red tape” on community service flight operators.
They say the discussion paper was released so the public can understand the aviation safety standards currently provided on community service flights and consider whether there may be alternative ways of managing safety more effectively.
