Fed: Ansett chief calls for review of aviation regulation

AAP General News (Australia)
04-22-2001
Fed: Ansett chief calls for review of aviation regulation

CANBERRA, April 22 AAP - Ansett chief executive Garry Toomey today called for a review
of Australian aviation safety regulation.

Speaking at the end of a week of round-the-clock discussions with the aviation safety
watchdog over the grounding of his 767 fleet, Mr Toomey said more stringent regulation
of airlines needed to be considered.

"I think that is probably an issue that needs to be addressed," he told Channel Nine.

"Clearly there were problems prior to December in our organisation that possibly could
be in others also, I don't know, that is up to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA)
to audit."

Meanwhile, former federal transport minister John Sharp today criticised the harshness
of CASA's handling of the problems with Ansett.

CASA grounded Ansett's fleet of 10 Boeing 767s shortly before Easter over concerns
about the safety of the planes and warned a show cause notice, which would have given
the airline two weeks to prove why it should be allowed to keep flying, could be issued.

"The language, I think, has been unnecessarily aggressive," Mr Sharp, who has acted
as an adviser to Mr Toomey, told Channel Nine.

"I believe that if CASA is handling this in a fair, unbiased and balanced manner, the
language that they use should not be aggressive nor provocative.

"And it seems to me that some of the motivation for the actions of CASA over the last
little while has been to try and demonstrate to the government and to the public that
CASA is tough and unfortunately it seems to me as it seems, I think, to a lot of other
people, that CASA has been too tough, too aggressive and has overdone it."

AAP eg/cdh/bwl

KEYWORD: CASA TOOMEY

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