Coroner calls for crash inquiry

A CORONER has called for the aircraft engineers who falsified logbook entries before a Queensland skydiving company’s plane crashed, killing five people, to be investigated.

First-time skydivers Joey King and his fiancee Rahula Hohua, pilot Andrew Aitken and instructors Glenn Norman and Juraj Glesk died in March 2014 after Skydive Bribie Island’s Cessna 206 crashed.

The plane took off from the Caboolture Airfield, north of Brisbane, and climbed to 200 feet before suddenly falling nose first from the sky as it banked left. The crash and a fuel fire that ripped through the Cessna after impact killed all five people, Queensland Coroner Terry Ryan said in his inquest findings yesterday.

While the coroner was unable to determine the cause of the crash, the inquest heard the pilot’s seat is likely to have suddenly slid backward from the plane’s controls because a safety mechanism was missing.

Mr Ryan said Ian Aviation inspected the plane a month before the crash and found it to be safe despite knowing the rear seat stop was not fitted on the pilot seat rail.

He referred the firm to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority for further investigation after finding it had falsified a logbook entry and said the pilot seat maintenance work had been carried out when it had not. Mr Ryan was also critical of Skydive Bribie Island’s owner and chief instructor Paul Turner, saying he was an unimpressive witness.

“He adopted a defensive and combative demeanour at the inquest and was evasive and non-responsive in answers to questions,” he said. Mr Turner appeared to have taken little interest in the investigation into the causes of the crash that killed his colleagues and clients, he said. “His indifference was demonstrated by his acknowledgment that he had not read much of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau report which he described as ‘rubbish’.”

Mr Ryan recommended sweeping changes to the Australian Parachuting Federation and CASA’s management of skydiving companies. A new operational rating or endorsement system was also required, along with greater monitoring of parachuting operations by CASA inspectors, he said. Jump pilots also require more training and regular proficiency checks.

Mr Ryan also said the APF should require members using Cessna or similar any aircraft with pilot seats that slide on rails to have the secondary seat stop mechanism installed.

HE ADOPTED A DEFENSIVE AND COMBATIVE DEMEANOUR AT THE INQUEST AND WAS EVASIVE AND NON-RESPONSIVE IN ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS CORONER TERRY RYAN