Plane Ran Out Of Fuel And Ditched Of The Coast Of Norfolk Island In The South Pacific

The Australian Senate has released a committee report focusing on an accident which occurred in 2009 involving a medical evacuation flight from Samoa.

The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) reports that all six people aboard the flight survived ditching in the South Pacific Ocean, though some were seriously injured. Australian air safety investigators said that the plane ran out of fuel, laying the blame on the pilot for the accident. The ATSB said that pilot Dominic James did not load enough fuel on board the twin-engine jet for the flight and should have diverted to the nearest airport in Fiji before the fuel situation became critical. James reportedly made "several" landing attempts in very poor weather conditions on Norfolk Island before ditching the airplane.

But the Senate committee report places at least some of the blame on Australia's air safety authorities. Transport Committee Chair David Fawcett said that the ATSB report "glossed over all of the systemic factors which clearly played a role in the lead-up to the accident."

Fawcett told the ABC that the company, Pel-Air, was known to have problems, but the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and the ATSB "made each other look good" after the accident. The committee said CASA "withheld crucial documents critical of Pel-Air," which is potentially a criminal offense.

The two agencies have often been at loggerheads, but in this case, members of the committee say they have been "working together." Australian Independent Senator Nick Xenophon said that the situation calls for an inspector general of aviation "so that we actually have an independent body that can oversee what they do and how the do it."

FMI: www.casa.gov.au, www.atsb.gov.au, www.aph.gov.au/senate