• Angel Flight founder Bill Bristow with a very valuable charge. (Angel Flight)
    Angel Flight founder Bill Bristow with a very valuable charge. (Angel Flight)
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CASA has dropped a proposal that would have required community service flights to operate under a Self-administering Aviation Organisation (SAAO) after the discussion paper was met with many objections.

In the Discussion Paper, CASA suggested that community service flights needed more oversight, and listed its preference as having an SAAO administer operations.

CASA Director of Aviation Safety Mark Skidmore said the current guidelines and practices used by community service flight organisations such as Angel Flight are sufficient for the time being.

“We have listened to the feedback to CASA’s preferred option and we accept this is not the way to proceed,” he said.

“CASA is not proposing any changes to the existing regulatory requirements for community service flights at this time.

“That does not mean we have stopped looking at this issue completely as the discussion paper put forward ten options – including doing nothing, passenger briefings and additional pilot training and checking.

“If CASA does propose to explore any of these options further there will be additional consultation with the aviation community and the public before any changes are implemented.

“Given the community clearly values the benefits of these flights CASA will not take any action that unnecessarily limits their ability to operate.”

CASA received 65 submissions to the discussion paper, many of which opposed the idea because of cost and complexity.

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