Former CASA Chief Alleges Fatality Rates Have Spiked

Australia's aviation safety body has rebuked claims by former Civil Aviation Safety Authority chief Dick Smith that the country's skies have seen a sharp increase in the number of fatal accidents of late.

A new safety report issued Thursday by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau shows the country experienced 23 deaths from 11 accidents in 2004, far below the 64 fatalities from 30 accidents in 1990. Although the country has seen 13 accidents with fatalities this year -- resulting in 34 deaths, 15 of which were from one accident -- that rate is still far below the 1990 level.

The ATSB stated, though, the record did not mean the agency could rest on its laurels.

"We've all got to keep working terribly hard to maintain this great record," ATSB executive director Kym Bills said to the Daily Telegraph.

"There's been an element of luck as well as an element of a good safety system that has kept Australia's rate at or better than world practice," added Bills, "but a serious accident could change that very quickly and so there's absolutely no room for complacency."

The ATSB produced the report after Smith claimed earlier this month the number of aviation deaths involving commercial pilots had spiked since the early 1990s, citing figures taken from the ATSB website showing 24 fatalities in 1990 and 1993, compared to 78 between 2002 and 2005.

Mr. Bills said Smith's numbers were a misuse of official figures, and could potentially "alarm the public before Christmas".

"Normally Mr. Smith calls us or emails us and asks for data and we provide that on a regular basis," he added. "On this occasion in the last month or so he seems to have sourced the data himself and unfortunately there are a number of errors in the data that have been used and therefore the wrong conclusions have been drawn from the data."

Smith stands by his numbers, and accused the ATSB of focusing more on politics than aviation safety.

"The ATSB has been instructed and even threatened by the government to keep aviation safety out of the news and it has done that very effectively," said Smith. "The announcements are always done before Christmas in the silly season when Parliament is not in session."

FMI: www.atsb.gov.au