Recently in Safety Category

It was a somber experience to listen to Tiger Airways Holdings acting chief executive Chin Yau Seng on Thursday night reiterate the group's commitment to safety and the Australian market, its desire to resume services as quickly as possible, and the "demonstration of commitment" Tiger made by appointing a former Qantas chief pilot as a safety advisor, when hours earlier Australia's safety regulator decided there were "deficiencies" so great in Tiger's re-submitted paperwork that it would take a few weeks to sort out, during which time Tiger would remain grounded.

During Tiger's first quarter earnings call Chin made no mention of the grounding extension the Civil Aviation Safety Authority plans to seek, saying instead Tiger had "made good progress with CASA" and "hopefully tomorrow we'll make another announcement".

When asked about the grounding extension, Chin said, "We can't comment on that." He added that "discussions are on going".

Whether Chin was ignorant or trying to spin the situation by avoiding it all together is debatable, but far more important is Tiger's paperwork failure, the sequence of which needs to be put into perspective.

CASA said it gave Tiger on 28 July "a notice listing a set of conditions it is proposing to impose on its air operator's certificate which may form the basis for the airline resuming operations. The notice also set out what Tiger Airways needs to do before CASA would even consider imposing the conditions."

Four days later on 1 August, CASA said Tiger had responded and CASA would consider the response. Advance three days to today and the response has so many "deficiencies" that it will take weeks to sort out, despite the response only being compiled in four days. It leaves the mind to wonder how Tiger in four days created a mess so great it will take weeks to sort out.

Clearly Chris Manning, the former Qantas chief pilot appointed as Tiger safety advisor, is not working out--but it remains to be seen if it is his doing or Tiger management not fully embracing his recommendations. Chin said Thursday evening that Manning "brings onboard a difference perspective". Chin said Tiger was willing to improve its safety. "Nobody's perfect," he said.

But not everybody is grounded, and then faced with an extended grounding after botching an opportunity to return to service.

A$18m loss for first quarter
On top of that, Tiger Australia for the first quarter had a "disappointing" S$23.2m (A$18m) operating loss, much of which Tiger attributed to higher fuel costs and decreased revenue from volcanic activity. Despite the Singapore arm posting an operating profit of S$7.5m, down from S$13.5m for the corresponding quarter last year, the group posted a S$20.6m loss, down from a S$1.9m profit for the first quarter last year.

Chin expected the current grounding, which occurred over the popular July school holidays, would see Tiger Australia post a financial loss for the year to 31 March 2012.

Annual earnings for the group would be "significantly affected" because of Tiger Australia's loss and grounding, Chin said. Bookings in Singapore, however, were strong, Chin said.

Here some say Tiger should call it quits in the Australian market. The carrier disclosed that as of today it had refunded S$17.7m in ticket sales and S$1.7m of ancillary revenue since the grounding. Those figures, however, are not in addition to the S$2m the carrier previously reported it was losing each week of the grounding.

Tiger confirmed it is in discussions with the South Australian government over the A$2.25m the government granted, with conditions, to Tiger to set up a base at Adelaide that is now expected to close. "These discussions are ongoing and a conclusion has yet to be reached," Tiger said in a statement.

No plans to leave Australia
"It is a major setback but I think we will get over it," Chin said. He added that there was "money to be made" in the domestic market, and Tiger Australia has in the past come close to break-even. Tiger's board and investors were "nowhere close to that tipping point" of pulling the plug down under, Chin said.

Re-branding not ruled out
If and when Tiger resumes services it will likely do so under its existing brand, but the carrier has not ruled out a re-branding exercise in the future. "When we resume services we intend to keep our brand," Chin said. He added that the group was working on a "number of initiatives".

No direction on service resumption plans
For nearly a week now Tiger's booking engine has showed that it only flies from Melbourne to five destinations. Asked if this was an indicator of reduced services, as expected, once the ban was lifted, Chin remarked it would be "premature to comment on what resumed services will look like".

"It doesn't mean it's restricted to that," Chin said, explaining he was "not yet in a position to say what the resumption plan is".

Aircraft basing flexible
A cut in services could yield surplus aircraft. While there were reports last month leasing agreements would make it prohibitively expensive to re-locate aircraft from Australia to the group's Asian bases, Chin said there were no such financial restrictions.

Chin, a former executive with Singapore Airlines, who has an approximately one-third stake in Tiger, disclosed the Tiger board approached him to lead the company while then-chief executive Tony Davis went to Australia to lead the operation here. Chin received clearance from Singapore Airlines to take up the opportunity.

The future management structure of Tiger is unclear, although Chin lightheartedly remarked "Tony [Davis] is not banished to Australia".

The prospect of the government banning foreign cabin crew on domestic flights, as reported in some outlets, would be a bold step--but if only it were true.

In reality the private bill Independent Senator for South Australia Nick Xenophon intends to introduce has a narrow remit. Xenophon, who chaired the Senate inquiry into pilot training and aviation safety, wants foreign-based cabin crew employed to work on Australian aircraft to have the same flight and duty time limitations as their Australian counterparts. It is an appropriate measure.

"This is a basic issue of fairness and safety," Xenophon said in a statement. "We shouldn't have an underclass of cabin crews flying around Australia on Australian carriers." Xenophon said foreign crew have no limitations in their contract on how many hours they could be expected to fly.

Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan was asked at a March Senate hearing if foreign crew had different duty limitations than their local counterparts.

"There is a variety of different arrangements in place on the Australian domestic arrangements. Some of the international crew will align with some of the Australian international crew, but the domestic crew have different agreements and different time limitations and how they work in Australia," Buchanan replied.

Xenophon's bill follows a recently-aired local documentary on ABC Lateline that highlighted how Jetstar employs Thai cabin crew from a company Qantas owns 37% of yet gives lower conditions to and, in some (exceptional) instances, has cabin crew work 20-hour shifts. The long shifts raise questions over how safety proficient the crew could be in an emergency.

"In the event of an emergency, I believe passengers have a right to expect that their cabin crews are going to be alert enough to get the door open and the passengers out," Xenophon said.

The proposed bill would also apply to international airlines in which an Australian carrier has a stake of at least 20%, directly affecting Jetstar Asia--which flies Airbus A330s from Singapore to Melbourne--and any possible full-service east Asia-based subsidiary Qantas will announce on 24 August.

While Xenophon said he would "take up" the issue of the lower salaries paid to foreign crews, he stopped short of calling for legislation on the topic. Buchanan told the senate inquiry an "indicative" salary (likely including per diem and flight hours) for Jetstar's Singapore-based crew would range from $36,000-$46,000 while the "indicative" salary for Australian-based cabin crew was $50,000-$69,000.

Buchanan said at the hearing that Thai-based cabin crew have similar salaries as their Singapore colleagues while Vietnam-based salaries "are substantially less" but "commensurate with local market levels".

"At the end of the day, you have to be competitive in each of the local markets to recruit cabin crew and pilots," Buchanan said.

Xenophon's statement said the bill "follows revelations that Jetstar's Bangkok-based foreign crews regularly work on flights that travel from one Australian location to another, and that most passengers would believe are domestic flights."

That statement is in reference to foreign-based crew working "tag" domestic services on their aircraft between international sectors, such as A330 flight JQ35 that routes Sydney-Melbourne-Bali. Foreign crews work the Sydney-Melbourne sector.

However, Xenophon should know that practice is not a "revelation" as it was discussed, with little debate, at a hearing he attended on 31 March.

Before the Civil Aviation Safety Authority grounded Tiger Airways effective 1 July, the carrier was showing signs of operational maturity, although Tiger's two low approaches in June and its subsequent grounding clearly indicate the safety side of the airline was deficient.

The positive operational signs were coming via a series of network changes that were giving critical short- and long-term perspectives about the carrier.

The network changes consisted of Tiger re-scheduling its Avalon-Perth flight to, in its words, "provide better timed...services". It also opted to re-locate one Airbus A320 from Melbourne Avalon to Melbourne Tullamarine. While Avalon was able to better serve Victoria's Geelong region, the bulk of traffic would find Tullamarine more convenient than Avalon.

Tiger also axed four routes: Melbourne to Mackay and Rockhampton, and Sydney to Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. Then-managing director Crawford Rix said in a statement "These network changes will both streamline and simplify our Australian operations, enabling us to focus on combining our low fares with improved punctuality."

Quietly added after that was that profitability to Mackay and Rockhampton was being affected by high fuel prices, and that a lack of a base in Queensland or New South Wales "has proved more challenging than anticipated".

In the long-term, that period will be seen as when Tiger started to grow up by trading maximum utilization hours for reliability. The carrier was due to axe four routes while only adding one return Melbourne-Sydney service--and no more, a spokeswoman confirmed. "It's about fixing reliability and flying the best routes to get our business on track," she said. Unknown is if Tiger faced any other restrictions from its show cause notice besides not being able to induct more aircraft into service.

That net utilisation decrease would have given Tiger more schedule padding, decreasing delay dominoes and dampening the affects of when an aircraft goes tech. That would have resonated well with a public that has lamented Tiger's reliability.

The move could also have been a prelude to Tiger trying to lure more of the corporate market as easyJet, for a global perspective, has done. While Tiger did have a tiny fraction of the corporate market, there was undoubtedly greater potential. Anecdotal evidence from corporate passengers shows they would fly Tiger more if its reliability was better--never mind the carrier's ultra no-frills approach.

That said, the International Air Transport Association noted at its June AGM that aircraft utilisation was falling globally due to a decrease in demand, suggesting that perhaps Tiger was seeing that demand decrease too and was not just looking to improve reliability.

In the short-term, Tiger acknowledged it was finally feeling the tough Australian market that Virgin first felt in May 2010 with a profit downgrade. The announcement axing some Mackay and Rockhampton services was the first time the carrier mentioned fuel as having an impact.

Going forward it should be watched if Tiger continues to show signs of operational maturity while also satisfying CASA. Tiger is expected to resume operations with a limited service that in addition to complying with safety regulations will help operationally. (The carrier's booking engine, at times, indicates Tiger will only fly to five cities from Melbourne upon service resumption.)

It remains to be seen if once CASA loosens the shackles and Tiger becomes under pressure to make up lost revenue if the carrier will go back to its old high-utilisation and low reliability ways, or if Tiger will embark on a slower path with bigger long-term gains.

Tiger's reservation system on the home page now shows the carrier only offers flights from Melbourne to five cities, a sharp decrease from the 14 routes the carrier planned to be operating prior to its grounding.

The Navitaire-powered service shows Tiger flying in Australia only from Melbourne to Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth, and Sydney (right).

Apparently axed are routes from Melbourne to Alice Springs, Cairns, Canberra, and Hobart, as well as Adelaide-Sydney and all Avalon services. However, using the booking engine when not on the homepage shows Tiger still operating flights to the above destinations. Tiger's route network as of June, prior to its 1 July grounding, is below.

In early June Tiger announced it would suspend from August Melbourne-Mackay, Melbourne-Rockhampton, Sydney-Brisbane, and Sydney-Sunshine Coast services. It planned to re-time its Avalon-Perth service and add a third Avalon-Sydney service.

Tiger could not be reached for comment.

If the home page reservation system is correct, the reduced network would affirm industry expectations Tiger would make a slow return to service, on its and CASA's accord. The past two months have also seen expectations Tiger would withdraw its bases at Adelaide and Avalon.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority now believes Tiger Airways Australia is nearing a position to safely resume services.

Yesterday the safety regulator indicated it had concluded its basic investigation of Tiger as it gave the carrier a set of undisclosed conditions, some of which Tiger must comply with before resuming services and some that must be adhered to after resumption. Accepting these conditions will end CASA's application to the Federal Court about extending Tiger's grounding. Yesterday's hearing, adjourned from last week, has been adjourned to next Monday (1 August), the day CASA originally expected to conclude its investigation by.

The adjourned hearing was instigated again at Tiger's request, showing Tiger continues to want to avoid court limelight. Tiger has ruled out flying before 5 August as it has refunded passenger tickets until then. An announcement about ticket booking resumption and scheduled flights on and after 5 August will be made in due course, Tiger said.

There are two views to this. First, as has been suggested in local reports, Tiger could resume services on 1 August but needs lead up time to sell tickets (it has agreed with the competition regulator not to sell tickets while grounded) and prepare crew.

The second view is Tiger may not be able to comply with CASA's conditions by 1 August. A carefully worded statement goes: "Tiger Airways Australia is confident that it can comply with these conditions and expects to resume services in the near future. As a consequence, Tiger Airways Australia will automatically refund all passengers booked to fly between 1 August 2011 and 4 August 2011."

With Tiger's fate no longer a prime consideration, two questions emerge: how quickly will the public go back to Tiger's low fares, and will the carrier continue with the operational (albeit non-safety) maturity it showed prior to its grounding?

Signs are strong that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority is nearing satisfaction with a turn around at Tiger Airways and could early this week lift the grounding it imposed at the start of the month for a week and then extended until 1 August.

CASA finally seems satisfied with the seriousness Tiger has taken to its approach and the measures implemented.

The grounding extension was subject to court approval, which was due to be heard last Friday but adjourned until next Thursday. There are doubts if next Thursday's court session will be heard as Tiger may no longer be grounded by then.

There are two sides to the court adjournment story: the incomplete version from a Tiger statement to the Singapore stock exchange that it and CASA "have jointly applied to the court for an adjournment of the proceedings". The complete sequence of events comes from CASA, who details that Tiger "sought the adjournment of the matter until Thursday 28 July 2011. CASA did not oppose the adjournment."

Both result in the same outcome, but CASA's version gives rise to the notion Tiger thought it was likely the Federal Court in Melbourne would approve the extended grounding--a tarnish it would be difficult to shake off on top of its troubles. Requesting a delay, until CASA was likely to assent to a return to operations, removes that potential stigma.

But Tiger should not expect a free-ride return to service. It and CASA are expected to detail--at an unknown level--the actions and corrections taken at Tiger. It is also unlikely Tiger will be permitted to return to a full schedule.

Tiger Airways Australia is further showing how serious it is about improving its safety tract, deficiencies in which led it be grounded on 2 July, by appointing former Qantas chief pilot Chris Manning to the role of Safety Advisor to Tiger chief executive Tony Davis, who took over the job after Crawford Rix resigned in the wake of the grounding.

Now Tiger must demonstrate it is serious about safety. Safety is not guaranteed by only appointing Manning, who was also group general manager of flight operations for Qantas, a position that may not instill safety confidence in everyone given Qantas's recent troubles, but does bring a wealth of experience.

The problem with Tiger, as is often the case in the industry, is not with pilots but management.

While Manning can suggest to go above and beyond ever regulation and best practice, it is up to Davis and his management team to make Tiger safe again.

The past problems may have been management not having enough advice, management being ignorant, or a combination. Davis must have neither.

While the incidents that prompted Tiger's grounding--two approaches conducted below minimum safe altitudes--were the responsibility of the same pilot, Tiger's show cause notice from March focused explicitly on the oversight of maintenance and pilot training. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has said there are systemic problems with Tiger, and systemic implicates management.

Tiger is not alone in being susceptible to management and bean counters, not pilots and safety officers, running an airline.

In the most colourful example, a Jetstar pilot told colleagues to "toughen up princesses" about the back-of-the-clock back-to-back flights Jetstar was having them operate regularly. On at least one route, Darwin to Singapore, Jetstar management introduced a layover to break the flying up. (Note: Jetstar says this was unrelated to the letter or senate safety inquiry.)

Qantas and its Rolls-Royce RB.211 powered-747 fleet are also embattled. The engine has a known problem with its compressor blades from the high pressure chamber leading to contained failures, as happened last week on a flight out of Johannesburg. Qantas is modifying the engines at an ostensibly slow pace as it does not have the capacity to fix them faster following the closure of its Rolls-Royce overhaul shop in Sydney.

On a lesser extreme, V Australia's April engine surge at Los Angeles was traced to debris in GE90's compressor as well as a crosswind and static start. While V Australia was following recommend procedures for engine washes, it subsequently elected--as other operators have decided--to conduct washes more regularly than after the every 500 cycles GE recommends.

That all said, in CASA's view Tiger's problems are far greater. It remains to be seen whether changes brought over the past 18 days and those still forthcoming are enough to satisfy CASA and let Tiger return to the skies next month.

On Friday the High Court in Melbourne will hear CASA's case to keep Tiger grounded until 1 August.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has rejected a freedom of information request to release the show cause notice (SCN) to Tiger Airways Australia, saying the contents could harm the grounded carrier's public perception.

CASA and Tiger have only said the 23 March SCN covers areas including oversight of maintenance and pilot training.

"The allegations made in the SCN and the responses by Tiger concerning them would, or at least could reasonably be expected to, cause damage to Tiger Airway's reputation - which may lead to damage to its business, commercial and financial interests," CASA said.

The 30-page SCN charged that Tiger "on a number of occasions" broke provisions of the Civil Aviation Act, Civil Aviation Regulations 1988, and Civil Aviation Orders.

CASA said those occurrences meant Tiger "thereby breached the condition of its air operator's certificate."

The safety regulator grounded Tiger on 1 July after further incidents including two breaches of flying below minimum safe altitudes. Last Thursday CASA sought an extension to the grounding until 1 August to allow it more time to complete its investigation.

Tiger disputed the SCN's allegations, CASA said. The carrier submitted an initial response and then a further response on 13 April totaling 42 pages which "makes submission as to why contraventions were not committed."

However, former Tiger managing director Crawford Rix disclosed at a May senate inquiry that the carrier re-structured its operations department and increased the number of local maintenance management personnel at its Melbourne base. Such roles were previously located at the global headquarters of Tiger Holdings in Singapore.

"Where CASA has made suggestions in relation to improving processes and oversight Tiger has taken immediate action and responded proactively with additional resource," Rix said. Last week Tiger announced he would resign by the end of the month.

No official determination about the breaches was made in the SCN and Tiger's responses. CASA said it was thus not in the public interest to release information that contained "no formal or final findings or conclusions about alleged contraventions or operational practices."

Privacy and defamation were also cited as reasons for declining to release the documents. CASA said the SCN and Tiger's response named specific individuals alleged to have broken regulations. Yet neither CASA nor a court made made formal findings about the breaches.

CASA declined to redact names as "some or all of those persons may be able to be identified by virtue of the factual matters raised in the notice."

It is becoming evident CASA has grown frustrated with Tiger. Right after the grounding CASA issued a pithy statement on Twitter saying "Real changes will be needed."

At the senate inquiry Senator Nick Xenophon told Tiger management that "a show cause notice may indicate a lack of satisfactory progress in terms of that dialogue between the regulator and the airline."

Rix replied, "I think the dialogue in general has been okay."

Tiger Holdings chief executive Tony Davis, who has since taken over Rix's role, immediately said the dialogue "has been very good."

Issuing a report after investigating an incident is a necessary part of aviation safety, but last week provided a delusional sense of conclusion.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau report in question was the preliminary investigation into the 7 June incident of Tiger Airways descending below minimum safe altitude, the first of two incidents last month. In brief, air traffic control cleared the Airbus A320 to descend to 2,500 feet but the crew, failing to notice an altitude discrepancy between ATC instructions, Jeppesen planning charts, and the flight management guidance and envelope system, descended to 2,000 feet. The aircraft landed safely at Melbourne.

After a similar incident at the end of June the Civil Aviation Safety Authority grounded Tiger, a measure that could be in place for the remainder of the month. The incidents are the straws that broke CASA's back, so for some the official if preliminary report closes the chapter on how and why Tiger was grounded. The ATSB's report into the second incident is due out this week, and will likely also be interpreted as "case-closed".

If only.

We do not know all of the other straws on CASA's back, and they were surely many but neither Tiger nor CASA are talking about them.

"We're clearly in the process, we're clearly addressing the issues that have been identified by CASA and in addition that to that we're completing our own review. So, as I said before, it's about a fresh start, it's about addressing that anything that needs to be addressed," new Tiger Australia chief executive Tony Davis, who previously looked after the entire group, told the ABC in an interview. Davis had a hollow message about working through problems, which he repeated over and over again without adding substance.

CASA has highlighted areas of concern like pilot training and maintenance control, but not divulged details. "There's a range of areas which have been of concern to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority," a spokesman said.

The details of those other straws will likely indicate that if Tiger satisfies CASA to resume operations, the carrier will not be able to do so with a full schedule, owning to problems with aircraft and/or crew. This possibility was put to Davis, who for an answer regurgitated his talking point. "Well, as I say, right now we're undertaking a comprehensive review of the operation."

No doubt the details, if ever known, will not reflect well on Tiger, but may also be damning for CASA, who permitted serious problems to go unchecked until only recently.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority announced Wednesday night it will apply to the Federal Court to extend Tiger's grounding until 1 August, but full details of the grounding's rationale are yet to be released.

Tiger can argue against the extension, but until the federal court in Melbourne approves or rejects the extension, Tiger will remain grounded. CASA says if it is successful in its application but completes its investigation earlier and determines there are no further unacceptable risks, Tiger could resume operations earlier.

Extending the grounding by three weeks shows how serious CASA reckons are Tiger's systemic flaws that allow an assortment of mishaps to occur--including two approaches conducted below minimum safe altitudes--or how stubborn CASA is finding Tiger in its unwillingness to change operations to a satisfactory level. Over the weekend chief executive Tony Davis denied there were any immediate problems with the carrier.

The full details of CASA's concerns originating from a show cause notice earlier this year are not known beyond the few topics CASA has released details of, such as pilot proficiency, maintenance control, and fatigue management.

There are two transparency comparisons to make. The first is from March when during a senate inquiry into pilot training and aviation safety a senator obtained a message from a Jetstar pilot denying he was fatigued yet extolling all the symptoms of being fatigued. The letter's serious side and implications were overshadowed by the pilot's phrase "toughen up princesses", but the letter gave explicit details of the type of fatigue being experienced--in this case, serious. Tiger's fatigue issues are unknown.

Even more sensational on the onset than the "toughen up princesses" letter is an example from America. In April the country's food and health regulator sent a public warning letter to Delta's chief executive detailing rodent excreta and urine found on aircraft. The letter specifies findings such as "9-15 rodent excreta pellets on the right aisle of the aircraft over seats C3-C7". While the mainstream media had a field day with such detail, the letter promoted transparency and that is missing in the Tiger case where the stakes are higher than rodent droppings.

CASA is not to blame. Its transparency is legally restricted, even though some elements of the safety regulator wish otherwise.

This page in April filed a freedom of information request to obtain the details of the show cause notice. The process called for Tiger to weigh in by Friday, a coincidental timeframe given Tiger's grounding. If Tiger does not respond by the deadline then CASA can determine to release the show cause notice and associated paperwork. If they do the public will have a much greater understanding of Tiger's situation. While some through ignorance or arrogance may misconstrue presented facts, others will fully comprehend the status quo, a situation they should be entitled to.

Grounded Tiger Airways hopes to announce by mid-day on Thursday a resumption to its services, which were suspended last Friday night through this Friday.

"We're working hard to address CASA's concerns & get our planes flying.Updates regarding svc resumption will be made by 1200hrs AEST, 7/7/11," the carrier says in a Tweet.

Tiger's optimism, and chief executive Tony Davis denying there are safety problems, are starkly contrasted to growing frustration from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

The safety regulator has most recently written, "That's what we're working on. Real changes will be needed." Although there was no context to the message or indication if it was replying to a user's message about the Tiger grounding, the message was likely in reference to Tiger.

Since the grounding CASA has been outspoken about wanting to see safety and operational changes from an otherwise nonchalant Tiger. Whether CASA's negotiation through the press and public is working on Tiger will be seen by Thursday.

If CASA does apply to the Federal Court for an extension on the grounding, which at five days is the longest it can impose on its own, the court can grant an extension for a set period of time up to 40 days, CASA says.

Two months ago, before specifics emerged of CASA's show cause notice to Tiger and before Tiger openly discussed the notice, details on the matter were scant and this page filed a freedom of information request to obtain the documents related to the show cause notice.
CASA, the Australian government at large, and Tiger have still not made these documents public.

The original request stated that since the show cause notice was a safety matter affecting a company that engages in public air transport, the public has the right to know about safety matters that potentially affect them.

Taking a significant action like grounding an airline for at least a week, as CASA has done to Tiger, shows there are safety matters that need to be disclosed sooner rather than later.

To CASA's credit the regulator approved the freedom of information request but had to work with Tiger about redacting the documents since they "contain information concerning business, commercial or financial affairs of an organisation," a spokeswoman said in an e-mail message. But those redacted documents have yet to materialise.

Ultimately no amount of commercial sensitivity, a justification airlines are quick to hide behind, can surpass the worst case scenario of fatalities.

Timeline of Flightglobal's freedom of information request

• 27 April: Request made
• 23 May: Informed by CASA documents contained confidential information that would need to be reviewed with Tiger
• 22 June: Informed by CASA review with Tiger commenced 24 May and was ongoing
• 1 July: CASA grounds Tiger over concerns stemming from the show-cause notice