Author
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 media brands in the UK and Australia. Today, he mostly writes about aviation, space and defence.
The apparent revelation contained in transcripts of air traffic control recordings seemingly contradicts the views of the pilot of the smaller aircraft.
It comes after Airservices Australia last year claimed it had 100 more air traffic controllers than it required to operate Australia’s network and said shutdowns were a result of a “short-term” and “unplanned” leave of controllers.
It came alongside reports that all 379 passengers and crew travelling on the next-generation Airbus survived, although five crew on a smaller Dash 8 the widebody struck died.
However, an ATSB interim report into the incident concluded that the low concentrations of the drug suggested it would unlikely to have been an “impairment of his psychomotor skills”.
VH-EBE, named Kangaroo Valley, flew its last commercial passenger flight in February this year before heading to Dresden in Germany for its upgrade to become a P2F (passenger to freighter).
CEO Tim Jordan said the firm made the “difficult decision” – days before it was due to start – because launching operations next month would put a “strain on our current capacity”.
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