The Hon Anthony Albanese MP

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport

Regional Development and Local Government

PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Minister

It has come out in the Coroner’s Inquiry on the Benalla crash that there was a major error in the ATSB final report.  The ATSB report stated that the GPS required manual inputs for it to fly in the “dead reckoning” mode. 

An experienced professional pilot, John Chew, has found that this is completely wrong.  In fact, the GPS will fly a complete approach in the “dead reckoning” mode, which (depending on the wind) will replicate exactly the approach made by the accident aircraft.

Can you urgently request that both CASA and the ATSB inform pilots of this problem?  Both CASA and the ATSB have known of this erroneous report for a number of weeks, however they have made no statement to pilots who are operating identical units.

Surely the certification of this dangerous GPS should be revoked.

Yours faithfully

Dick Smith