The Australian Transport Safety Bureau recommends that the operator address this safety issue.
Safety issue
The company operations manual did not specify any recovery procedures in the event of inadvertent entry into Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC).
Operator comment
During the investigation and consideration of the draft report, the operator indicated that it would develop procedures for application by pilots in the event of inadvertent entry into IMC for inclusion in its operations manual. The operator suggested that those procedures would be incorporated into existing emergency training, and would include the initial requirement to control the aircraft and options for recovery to Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC).
ATSB comment
The ATSB made a number of attempts to obtain confirmation of any safety action taken by the operator in response to this safety issue. However, due to circumstances beyond the operator's control, the operator has, as yet, been unable to respond.
This investigation report could be expected to prove relevant to a number of other operators and to pilots in general. That relevance is timely, given the approach of winter and the accompanying weather patterns in a large part of Australia. On that basis, it was decided to progress the release of the final report to the public, rather than delaying the release pending the operator's input.
A safety risk analysis was carried out by the ATSB and, on that basis, it was determined that safety action would be sought by the operator via the following safety recommendation.
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