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Adding to the Caa’s current woes is news that new evidence has been presented to the enquiry into the crash of a Trinidad light aircraft in the Nsw Blue Mountains last year. Two young men survived the crash but died probably two days later when the search failed to locate them. The new evidence revolves around a bushwalker who allegedly heard the aircraft crash and reported it to the Caa which failed to respond. Perhaps the outcome of this would have been very different if good airmanship had been demonstrated in the first place with a flight plan being lodged or details of the intended track left with a responsible person.

Qantas-American Codeshare Approved

The International Air Services Commission has given approval for Qantas and American Airlines to begin codeshare services across the Pacific. Due to start this month, the agreement in effect means that American will buy 366 Qantas seats per week in each direction between Sydney and Los Angeles, giving the Us operator some marketing presence on the route it pulled out of in 1992.

The two airlines have a long-standing similar arrangement under which Qantas passengers can travel from Los Angeles to Chicago, New York, Washington Dc and Boston on American flights using dual Qf/Aa flight numbers. In the meantime, Lufthansa, United Airlines and Thai Airways are looking at extending their commercial ties with Ansett to make the Australian carrier the local link in a global alliance. Ansett and Lufthansa already have an interline agreement, Ansett and United also have an extensive codeshare arrangement on domestic flights in the Usa and Australia, and Lufthansa and Thai are linked to United through other commercial arrangements.

No More Spraying

The Us government has long been campaigning to end the practice by 27 countries of spraying insecticide in the cabins of arriving international airliners, and has won a small victory with three of them agreeing to cease. Chile, El Salvador and Cape Verde have all stopped spraying the interiors of aircraft, while the two dozen other countries still doing it continue to face pressure from the Us. Australia, of course, is one of them and others include New Zealand, Brazil and Mexico.

Register Returns

We are pleased to advise that our popular and very useful Register Review column will return with the December edition. Again, though, we would like to emphasise that its non-appearance in this and the last issue were unfortunately due to reasons beyond our control. It almost seems a shame that this quaint custom could disappear from the local international arrivals scene, although the humour it often provokes should not hide its serious intent.

Hornet Collides With F-5

An Raaf F/A-18 Hornet collided with a Royal Malaysian Air Force Northrop F-5 fighter during air combat manoeuvres near Butterworth on October 13. The damaged Hornet recovered safely to base, but the F-5 caught fire and its pilot was forced to eject. The Hornet pilot, Flt Lt Andrew Gillespie, was able to warn the Malaysian pilot that his aircraft was on fire and gave rescue services an accurate location of the downed airman before returning to Butterworth.

The incident is subject to an investigation by the Raaf in conjunction with Malaysian authorities and the Hornet will probably have to be airfreighted back to Australia for repairs.

Raaf Wins Fincastle Trophy

The prestigious Fincastle Trophy — an annual competition between maritime patrol aircraft from Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada — has been won by an Raaf crew from 11 Squadron flying a P-3C Orion. This year’s competition was hosted by Raaf Base Edinburgh and marked the 12th occasion on which the Raaf has either won or shared the Trophy since its inception in 1961. 11 Squadron also won the competition in Canada last year. Competing aircrew are required to locate and track a submarine and then launch a simulated torpedo attack. Apart from its training value, the competition is also an excellent forum for the discussion of anti-submarine warfare tactics and technology. The Fincastle Trophy was established in the memory of Sgt Nairn Fincastle Airde-Whyte, an Raf Coastal Command gunner who was killed in action in 1943.

Lufthansa Float A Success

With the Qantas share float now less than six months away, its success seems closer with news that the first stage of a two-part float of Lufthansa shares has been very successful. In the first tranche of the issue, the German government offered five million shares at Dm 182 each, translating to a total value of about $807 million. The offer was heavily oversubscribed (by a factor of four), indicating the second and larger tranche — scheduled for the second half of next year — will also be successful. Under German law, 50% of Lufthansa’s shares must remain under local control and at the moment some 36% is still held by the German government, although this will be reduced with the release of the second tranche.

Of the shares which were offered this time, some three-quarters of the allocations were made to investors in Germany, the Uk and continental Europe, with most of the rest going to the Pacific Rim area including Australia.