Thursday, 13 April 2023
Stories and events of the Kaurareg homeland of Kaiwalagal, the Torres Strait homeland and Cape York homelands of the Anggamuthi, Atambaya, Wuthathi, Yadhaykenu and Gudang Peoples.
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Calls for CASA to apply exclusions to Skytrans flights BY CHRISTINE HOWES
Jasmine signs a three-year NRLW deal for NQ Cowboys Star Torres Strait Islanders Jasmine Peters (above) and Tahlulah Tillett are two of the first three players to be signed by the North Queensland Cowboys for their inaugural season in the National Rugby League women’s competition. Pic courtesy NQ Cowboys. For full story and more pics see P15 N
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Skytrans CEO Alan Milne has called on the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to issue the right exclusions and not be as “prescriptive”, after they approved flights back into Mabuiag in February – effectively for only one passenger at a time. Torres Strait Island Regional Council CEO James William has joined the call, and said any other alternative – fixing the runways or providing a ferry, for example – could cost up to “hundreds of millions” of dollars. Mr Milne said all they needed was an exclusion or exception to fly. “That might sound bad, but it’s just going back to what we were doing for the last 20 years,” he said. “All we’re after is an exclusion from CASA, or an exception, to say that Skytrans is hereby approved to operate with processes in place that allow for safe operation into short runaways. “That’s it – that’s all they need to do, and that then passes the risk onto us, as the airline, as it always has been.” A CASA spokesperson told the Torres News they had enabled Skytrans to resume operations into Mabuiag Island in mid-February. “Given some of the restrictions that will apply to these operations, we appreciate Skytrans needs to determine whether it can operate commercially viable services to the islands,” they said.
“We continue to work closely with Skytrans in relation to their efforts to progressively and safely resume service to other islands in the Torres Strait.” Mr Milne said, however, they didn’t change the regulation. He said they had been grounded by the stroke of pen and were now bound by the current rules, procedures and legislation. “They just said, ‘yes, you can go back in’,” he said. “So with the additional penalties that new regulation has imposed, it means we can only carry one passenger.” Mr William said CASA needed to make a “special dispensation” to allow the flights in consideration of the context of the operating environment – and the constraints. “We are not saying that it is ok to lower the safety standard,” he said. “I think the issue is that CASA simply did not consider the effects of implementing these new standards without the impact on already marginal and very vulnerable communities, such as the Torres Strait, that rely on these services. “I think it’s very important. “You can’t change the operating environment without costing up to hundreds of millions dollars of additional money being invested into the region to improve the infrastructure.” Continued on P4 N