Air safety regulator examines ditching

The air safety regulator is examining Pel-Air's flight planning practices after questions have been raised about why an aircraft involved in a miracle night-time ditching off Norfolk Island did not have enough fuel to reach another destination.

Six people survived the ditching on Wednesday after Captain Dominic James defied the odds to land the Westwind jet intact in pitch darkness on choppy seas. The air ambulance had been on a CareFlight mission to evacuate a sick Australian woman and her husband from Western Samoa.

Captain James has been hailed as a hero for his skill in ditching the plane as it ran low on fuel, after four unsuccessful attempts to land at the island's airport because of bad weather.

The company has said the weather forecast was good for Norfolk at the time the jet departed Western Samoa and the crew did not realise how badly it had deteriorated until after they had passed the point of no return.

But the accident has prompted Pel-Air to tighten its fuel policy to require all planes flying to remote islands to carry enough fuel to reach an alternative airport if unable to land at their planned destination.

Managing director of parent company Regional Express, Jim Davis, said the current policy did not mandate an alternative under the right circumstances, such as good en-route weather.

But he said the company had always required planes to carry enough fuel for an alternative airport if there were any doubts about its ability to get to an island.

"One of the factors that we had in mind is quite often these flights are urgent, particularly if you've got a critically ill patient," he said. "So what we've said is that, until we understand what happened this week . . . it doesn't matter the urgency, you must carry enough fuel no matter how many extra fuel stops that requires."

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has yet to decide to launch a formal investigation into the operator and referred questions on the ditching to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is investigating the accident and plans to speak to the pilots early next week.

But the regulator said it had legal requirements for air operators to carry sufficient fuel to undertake a flight safely.

"This includes additional fuel to deal with delays caused by weather or other factors and enough fuel to divert to alternate aerodromes," it said. "CASA is examining issues relating to the planning of the flight that ditched at Norfolk Island."

Mr Davis also hit back at suggestions there had been problems with life jackets. He said it was true only three people managed to don life jackets, but he said two of those without were the crew, who were busy in the final stages of the ditching and had to leave the sinking aircraft quickly. The other was the patient.

"The aircraft actually had seven jackets on board and two life rafts," he said "They did manage to get the life rafts up to the exits but there wasn't time to deploy them through the window exits."

Pel-Air has been aggressive in seeking aeromedical and other contracts. It is chaired by former transport minister John Sharp.