Broome Aviation pilots experienced pressure not to report aircraft defects on maintenance releases, and many pilots also experienced or observed pressure from individuals within the company management to conduct flights in aircraft with defects that they considered made the aircraft unsafe for flight.
Positive steps have been taken by Broome Aviation, but their effectiveness in addressing the safety issue will depend on how they are embraced and executed over time.
As such, the ATSB will close the safety issue as partially addressed and rely on the continued efforts of the operator, and surveillance activities by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, to adequately address the safety issue.
Broome Aviation has implemented a safety management system (SMS) in line with the current Civil Aviation Safety Regulations and has been holding monthly safety meetings. It has submitted to the ATSB the last 3 meeting minutes. The operator also submitted an occurrence event, which had been entered into its SMS, as an example of the system in use.
Additionally, the HOFO advised that since joining Broome Aviation their focus has been on:
pilot development via training and supervised flight operations to build confidence and decision-making skills.
The combination of:
are all positive steps towards addressing this safety issue.
While these actions provide a pathway for improvement, their effectiveness in achieving a genuine cultural shift in attitudes and behaviours will depend on how they are embraced and executed over time.
As such, the ATSB will close the safety issue as partially addressed and rely on the continued efforts of the operator, and surveillance activities (guided in part by the findings of this investigation) by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, to adequately address the safety issue.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority advised that it intended to include this safety issue into the scope of the next surveillance event on the operator. At the time of writing, this was scheduled to occur in the coming months.
