NSW: Elderly flight instructor tested within past 6 months: CASA

AAP General News (Australia)
12-18-2008
NSW: Elderly flight instructor tested within past 6 months: CASA

SYDNEY, Dec 18 AAP - An 89-year-old flight instructor involved in a mid-air collision
which killed two women would have been subjected to testing every six months, Australia's
aviation safety regulator says.

Two small planes from separate training schools collided in mid-air, sending one into
a spin before it smashed into the back of house on Flame Tree Street at Casula, in Sydney's
south-west, about 11.30am (AEDT) on Thursday.

Police said the women - an instructor and student pilot believed to aged their 20s
- died in the Cessna 152, which was owned by Basair Aviation College.

The other plane, a single-engine Liberty owned by Sydney Flight Training Centre, made
an emergency landing at Bankstown Airport.

Its 89-year-old male instructor and 25-year-old male student pilot were not hurt.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said pilots were subjected to more rigorous
testing once they turned 65.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the 89-year-old would have undergone a medical test
and flying proficiency test every six months to retain his commercial licence.

"After age 80 we have the flexibility to require any additional tests we think may
be needed," Mr Gibson said.

"We can look at the history of someone and say `well perhaps we need to extra tests
in a particular area', then we can order those tests to be done.

"It's a fairly rigorous scheme of both medical testing and flying testing the guy would
have had to have had to be operating as a flying instructor."

Thursday's incident follows a similar crash in Melbourne in August, when a trainee
pilot on his first solo flight died after his plane clipped another aircraft and span
out of control to the ground.

Akash Ananth, an aviation student from India, crashed the Cessna 150 into a garage
in a block of single-storey units about 20 metres from Cheltenham East Primary School
in Melbourne's southeast.

AAP nr/evt/bwl

KEYWORD: PLANE LICENCE

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