Fleet Air Arm
Association of Australia
Association Comments on
Sea King Revelations
14 December 2005
The Association has moved to reassure the community following allegations of poor maintenance practices in relation to the Sea King crash which claimed nine lives.
While Association members have been appalled at the revelations to the Board of Inquiry into the crash, it believes there remains a very high level of professionalism among serving members.
In a letter to the Chief of Navy, David Farthing, National President of the Association, wrote:
I write on behalf of all members of the Fleet Air Arm Association of Australia.
I have to report the concern, disbelief and, indeed, outrage at the reported maintenance shortcomings which are being revealed at the Sea King Board of Inquiry.
I have taken a 'straw poll' at all rank levels of the Association. The unanimous view is that the failure to observe basic instructions with regard to aircraft safety is unprecedented in the long and proud history of the Fleet Air Arm.
In my own direct experience in Vietnam, under the most onerous climatic and operational pressures, such shortcuts were neither contemplated nor tolerated.
We appreciate that the present events will have an appalling effect on morale within the Fleet Air Arm, both for serving members and their families.
We wish to express our complete support for the vast majority of serving members who continue to carry out their duties with the dedicated professionalism which we believe has always been the standard within the Fleet Air Arm.
In a letter to the editors of the Sydney Morning Herald and the South Coast Register, Greg Wise, President of the NSW Division of the Association, wrote:
Members of the Fleet Air Arm Association are shocked and dismayed at the allegations of poor leadership and maintenance shortcomings within the RAN naval aviation branch as depicted in the Sydney newspapers last week.
Operating aircraft from the landing platforms of our ships significantly extends our defence capability but it calls for the highest of aviation skills - there is no place for error, complacency or deviation from established flying procedures or maintenance practices.
The Association believes the majority of serving naval aviation personnel carry out their duties with the dedicated professionalism and skill which has always been the accepted high standard within the Fleet Air Arm.
The Association also wants to assure the families of those who lost their life in the Sea King disaster that their loved ones were, in naval parlance, "Second to None".
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