Dick Smith Flyer
Copy of letter from Minter Ellison for Airservices
By Dick Smith
Nov 16, 2007, 09:06
15 November 2007
Dear Mr O’Brien
Airservices Australia – Flightwatch
We act for Airservices Australia (Airservices).
Airservices has forwarded your letter dated 12 November 2007 for us to reply.
Your letter contains a series of assertions of fact. Our client disagrees with a number of those assertions. Your client is proceeding on incorrect assumptions and appears to misunderstand aspects of the changes to Flightwatch. Our client specifically rejects your client’s assertion that any of its currently implemented or proposed changes in relation to Flightwatch are, or could be taken to constitute, a danger to the safety of aviation. Our client takes very seriously its obligations in relation to the safety of air navigation. Our client also rejects the assertion that any of its processes to date in relation to Flightwatch have fallen short of its statutory or other obligations.
Your letter also refers to various correspondence and dealings with the Minister for Transport and Regional Services. For obvious reasons we do not comment on that correspondence.
After a request by the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, Airservices has decided that it will:
(a) participate in an external review of the arrangements for the delivery of Flightwatch services against terms of reference to be endorsed by the Airservices’ Board. That appointment and the terms of reference for the review will be made after consultation with the Secretary of the Department of Transport and Regional Services;
(b) as soon as possible, subject to safety considerations put on hold the final phase of the implementation of changes to Flightwatch. We are instructed, however, that the Flightwatch transition is now more than 85% complete.
(c) until the review is concluded, continue to monitor those frequencies which have to date been consolidated. This will also involve the retention of all relevant infrastructure. Please note that one frequency has already been converted to use by ATC. Should a call be made to that frequency the caller will be answered by ATC; and
(d) issue appropriate notifications in relation to the matters in (b) and (c).
We assume that your client will not be commencing the proceedings threatened in your correspondence. If this is not the case would you please telephone the writer immediately. We also ask that if any application is made to the Court for urgent relief that this letter is produced by you to the Court. Please note that we have instructions to accept service on behalf of Airservices should your client decide to commence proceedings.
We note the comments made by your client on the Sunrise program on Channel 7 on 13 November 2007. Those comments are clearly defamatory of the Chairman of Airservices and some of its Senior Executives and they reserve all rights with regards to your client’s defamatory statements.
Additionally, your client has made a number of factually incorrect statements in the media in relation to Flightwatch. They include, for example, statements in relation to:
(a) reductions in safety in the Flightwatch system;
(b) lack of proper safety assessments being performed by Airservices prior to the Flightwatch changes; and
(c) the 29 Frequencies used for Flightwatch being closed down.
Our client requests that these statements made by your client be publicly corrected.
If you have any questions in relation to this letter, please contact me on the number below.
Yours faithfully
MINTER ELLISON
John Weber
Partner