Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Anindilyakwa Land Council CEO Mark Hewitt says he’s cancelled arrangements with the charter company flying a light plane that crashed injuring multiple staff members on Friday

Transcript

Anindilyakwa Land Council CEO Mark Hewitt says he’s cancelled arrangements with the charter company flying a light plane that crashed injuring multiple staff members on Friday · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that investigations are ongoing into a light
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: plane crash on Groot Island. Police received reports that the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: aircraft crashed after making an emergency landing in a dirt
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: paddock between Roll Highway and a nearby access road on
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Friday afternoon. There were five passengers and one pilot on board,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and four passengers were taken to the local clinic in
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: what was said to be a serious condition. Now, four
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: passengers on that flight were and Deliaqua Land Council employees
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and their CEO Mark Hewitt joins me on the line
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Mark, Good morning everybody.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Mark.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Tell me how are those employees going?
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: By the pretty young, beaten up, I guess the best
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: description that they've all been released, with the exception of
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: one of the passengers from hospital though of Medivact on
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Friday night into Darwin.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Goodness, mate, it must have been an incredibly frightening situation
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: as you started to hear detail of what it unfolded.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Well, unfortunately, I think we've got a fairly serious problem
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: with the light aircraft industry in general in where we operate. Yeah,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: this is the second accident that's happened in five months.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: The previous was a double fatality flying from Go to
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Catherine with the same airline, and so from our point
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: of view, this is unacceptable and something needs to change.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: But we've canceled our arrangements for that company and we'll
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: only be flying with twin engines because this last incident
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: was a engine failure.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: And look, it sounds like very serious action to take,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: but by the sounds of it, it is what the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: ALZ thinks is appropriate and what the community thinks is appropriate.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: At this point, well, it's just.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Life and death stuff. You know, we're in the air
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: every day pretty much doing our work. And you know,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: all credit to these young pilots who are getting their
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: house up, but the fact is these these are aircraft
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: that are over forty forty five years of age or
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: so like that, and pilots have only had their lives
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: it's less in the year. It's just not good. And
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: you know, these these young guys are doing great job,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: all credit to them, But the whole industry is based
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: on this kind of environment to feed to feed the
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: pilot shortage. That's quite clearly evident. Even with the mainstream
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: service like Air North, which is absolutely anhurrent service delivery
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: on the group just terrible standards. So I think we've
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: got a problem and the solution will need to take
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: a proactive action between the four lane councilors working together
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: to addresses.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Oh. I was going to say, Mark, you know what
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: can you do as well from this point, because I
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: suppose the fact is you need people flying in and out.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Of group alike.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: You've touched on on a daily sort of basis, whether
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: it's staff heading out there, whether it's locals heading to
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and fro. So you know, what can you do to
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: make sure that they're still able to travel.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Well with the light aircraft. We're going to to our
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: own solution. We've been negotiating with companies to have the
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: light aircraft between engines that we can use. We're spending
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: probably close to six hundred thousand the year just on
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: light aircraft. A return flight between Doe and a group
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: is a thousand and fifteen hundred dollars return and that's
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: if it turns up on time, where it's completely canceled.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: So it's just crazy, and you know, we have to
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: take more control ourselves, and that's what we're doing.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: And from this point on, obviously, like you've said, you know,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: you're not going to have your employees traveling with that airline.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: What other support is being provided to the families that
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: were impacted by this crash on Friday.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: We've got a company that's active on the ground counseling
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: all our employees and particularly the passengers and that flight.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: I'll also bring in a psychologist to talk to people
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: have really been quite traumatized, both seeing it or being
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: a part of it.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Mark tell me, you know, when you talk about a
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: crash like this, it is so like we're incredibly lucky
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that there has not been a loss of life in
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: what happened on Friday. It must be an incredibly traumatizing
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: situation though for the whole community right now.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: I think it's a big wake up call. You know,
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: this goes We had a Senate inquiry in twenty nineteen
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: about nationally about services to remote areas. We provided a
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: very detailed submission. Nothing's changed. There's no regulator or on
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: budsman in the territory provided for our area. It's all
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: done out of some Canberra. So we just think, you know,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: we're going to have to like we've done in many
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: areas where there's failure and service, whether it's education or
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: the justice system. We're there travel, we're going to have
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: to do the same.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: So do you reckon there needs to be somebody locally
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: sort of overseeing what goes.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: On and that kind of thing.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: I do, Yeah, I think so, you know, it's just
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: ludicrous if you were to travel with our horse, you see,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: straight away we all laugh about it. I think it's funny,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: but it's not and you know, particularly as a light aircraft,
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: and it's very dangerous. Well, I think I think we
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: do need somebody who can oversee this and provide provide,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: you know, cat, I guess is a common of Nity
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: recommendations for change.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And look, I do want to be really clear that
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: that the crash that occurred on Friday was not a
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: North that was involved. But what you are saying is
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: that obviously with their North there has been situations where
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: there is a cancelation of services. It's a it's a
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: very real thing that happens on a very regular basis, isn't.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: It very much? So I'm not making accusations and or
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: even that those aircraft that are fashioned, I haven't passed
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: checks and you know, I'm not making you know, wild
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: accusations I'm just looking at the evidence, which is not good. Now.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I do want to ask, in terms of the changes
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: that you've put in place already and you know what
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you would like to see happen in the future, how
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: is it going to impact the ALC's operations in terms
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: of getting to various communities.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: It's going to hopefully it will mean that we get
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: to where we've got to go safely and I'm on time,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: which is not the case at the moment. It can
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: only get better, it is.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: It's an incredibly tough situation.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I think that anybody that's lived in a remote community
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: understands how tough it is, because the fact is you
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: need to travel into the major town centers at different
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: times for a lot of different things.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: But it's also in terms of getting staff out.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: There for clinics, you know, for teaching, for all sorts
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: of different jobs as well, so that air travel is
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: very often essential, but you need to make sure that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: people are getting where they need to go in a
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: safe way.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: That's right. You know, when you're throwing the next for
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: wet suits and you know we've just had a big one,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: you know the risk. The risk is there a a
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: presence which need to work together with the industry to
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: improve the situation.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Well, and Delia Aqua Land Council CEO Mark Hewitt, I
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much for having a chat with us.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: And I really hope that those staff members, that those
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: were involved in the crash on Friday, that they are
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: okay and that their families and everybody are okay. Thank
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: you very much, thank you, Thanks mate, much appreciated.