Families up in air over plane crash

“We need to establish what happened and why it happened.” RAY MCLEOD- DRYDEN

A CORONER investigating the tragic deaths of four friends in a horror flying accident near Point Lonsdale has voiced concerns about a lack of regulation around private aviation.

Daniel Flinn, Donald Hately, Di Bradley, and Ian Chamberlain were flying to a music festival on King Island, in Bass Strait, when their plane crashed into the water and killed all on board.

Three of the friends were pilots and investigators have been unable to determine who was flying the plane.

Coroner Audrey Jamieson said yesterday it was concerning that there was no requirement to log the intended pilot before takeoff.

She said without knowing who was flying the plane there was no way of definitively deter- mining what caused the tragic accident.

Pilot identification was one of a number deficiencies she said the accident had highlighted.

Ms Jamieson said she also had concerns about a lack of communication between pilots and air traffic control regarding dangerous weather conditions.

“Is that how we want our airspaces to be managed...(where) we don’t know who is flying and we don’t know if they’ve got the skill set to fly in that sort of weather?” she said.

A report released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found the January 2016 accident was probably caused by bad weather.

It found poor visibility caused the King Island-bound pilot to turn back to Point Lonsdale before heading south over the ocean.

After about two minutes the plane turned again then went into a rapid descent, hitting the water and killing all on board.

The ATSB found the continued flight beyond Point Lonsdale was probably influenced by the difficulty of assessing the visibility conditions. It said the loss of visual clues probably led to the pilot becoming “spatially disorientated”.

Chamberlain family spokesman Ray McLeod-Dryden said the tragedy had highlighted serious issues around aviation regulations.

“We need to establish what happened and why it happened, and if we can’t identity the pilot that’s a problem with the system,” he said. “We need change.”

Aircraft operators claim new licensing regulations introduced in 2014 ran to more than 1200 pages yet were full of problems and have had to be constantly revised since then, leaving even the regulators unable to answer queries about what the rules mean.

They say they are already swamped with paperwork and administrative burdens.

Ms Jamieson said she saw no probative value in holding a full inquest into the tragedy but invited submissions on the issue.

She said she was considering holding a summary inquest.