CASA review finds no issues with Rex’s safety practices

Wagga Wagga, Australia - November 27, 2008: Rex Regional express airline, a SAAB 340 at country NSW, parked and resting couple of hours before passengers boarding, with rain in the background.

By Christian Fleetwood

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has given Regional Express (Rex) the all-clear following a safety audit.

Last week, Travel Weekly reported that CASA was in the process of “carefully examining” allegations of breaches of safety obligations made against Rex.

Further allegations made against Rex included “coercion, intimidation and bullying of employees” to the point that they were afraid to report aircraft defects.

Following a two-day audit on 4 and 5 July of the Rex Wagga Wagga maintenance facility, and a review of allegations made against “short comings” in aircraft maintenance, CASA has confirmed it has no issues with the safety of Rex.

The audit, which came as part of a broader safety assurance review, focused on Rex’s safety management system; particularly error reporting rates and processes for managing them in accordance with ‘just culture’ principles.

“Rex management and staff were cooperative and responsive to the audit team’s requests and questions,” CASA said in a statement, adding maintenance engineering staff had been randomly selected and interviewed.

“All of them said that they felt confident in reporting maintenance errors or defects and they indicated Rex operated according to ‘just culture’ principles.”

CASA has said that it will carefully consider the information obtained during the course of the audit against the requirements of applicable civil aviation legislation.

Although it normally takes up to 21 days to finalise an audit report of this kind, CASA intends to expedite the completion of its safety assurance review.

Rex has also provided CASA with a full briefing on the facts and circumstances related to VH-RXN, which featured in a video that claimed to show a rusty propeller shaft on the aircraft.

Rex prop

Rex deputy chairman John Sharp said that it wasn’t, in fact, rust but “some muck” that had been wiped off later using a solvent.

CASA has said that it has no current concerns over the airworthiness of VH-RXN – based on an assessment of information provided by Rex.

“CASA would take immediate action if there was any evidence of serious safety issues at Rex, or with any unaddressed airworthiness concerns in relation to a particular aircraft,” CASA said in a statement.

At close of trading yesterday, Rex had reported a share price percentage increase of nearly 1.5 per cent. This comes after Rex’s share price dropped by more than 10 per cent, last week, which came in the wake of the company recording modest profit and revenue growth in the first half of the 2019 financial year.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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