Adam Thorn

A potentially undiagnosed medical condition likely led to a BK117 pilot suffering a fatal crash while tackling a fire in Ulladulla, NSW in 2018.

The business said Alan Littlewood would take an extended break after leaving before making any decisions on future roles.

However, speaking on the Australian Aviation Podcast, Sharp expressed sympathy for his counterpart, who he said had suffered “vicious” criticism despite other figures expressing similar views previously.

The outage, mostly affecting Virgin and Rex, was identified at 4:30pm on Friday evening and led to long queues forming at Sydney Airport.

A consortium of unions have lost their final legal bid to allow Qantas workers, including a 30-year veteran undergoing cancer treatment, to claim sick leave while stood down.

The airport revealed the numbers travelling through were 1,489,000, up 30 per cent from March and almost double December’s Christmas high of 659,000.