A Whodunit And Why"

Every ten days a pilot in Australia declares an emergency due to deteriorating weather conditions –- and many of these emergencies are fatal.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is tackling this high risk to aviation safety by staging a series of special Crash Scene Investigation workshops for private and commercial pilots.

The day-long CSI workshops will teach pilots how to avoid weather emergencies, what to do if caught out in worsening weather and how to maximize chances of survival if a crash occurs.

Aviation experts will take pilots step-by-step through a real life accident which was caused by deteriorating weather conditions.

Pilots will be asked to investigate the causes of the accident, what the pilot of the doomed aircraft could have done to avoid the crash and how pilots should prepare for emergencies.

In this way pilots will learn practical and powerful lessons from the crash of a Piper Warrior in NSW in 1999, which killed three people.

CASA will host the CSI workshops, with experts from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Search and Rescue and a prominent aviation medical specialist taking part.

Workshops will be held in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth this financial year.

A chilling note during the workshop is a 178 second countdown – the average time a non-instrument rated pilot has before hitting the ground once visual conditions have been lost during flight.

CASA's acting head of safety promotion, David Pattie, says the unique format of the CSI pilot workshops will drive home powerful lessons.

"The whole day is one long whodunit and why," Mr Pattie says.  "Pilots will be unraveling what went wrong and how the fatal accident could have been avoided.

"They will leave with a much stronger understanding of the risks of flying into deteriorating weather conditions while operating under visual flight rules and what they can do to save themselves if they get into trouble.

"CASA's CSI pilot safety workshops will help save lives."

FMI: www.casa.gov.au