CASA has today announced that AOPA Australia CEO Ben Morgan would no longer form part of the self-declared medical working group, citing a lack of respectful participation.
The Technical Working Group (TWG) is developing a recommended framework for self-certification (Class 5) standards among others to be presented to the Aviation Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP).
"The Technical Working Group consists of representatives from across the aviation community bringing diverse and different perspectives," CASA said today.
"We’re disappointed that one working group member from AOPA has been unable to accept that there are views beyond his own and participate respectfully.
"He won’t be participating further but we can assure members of that industry association that we value their input and that their interests will continue to be represented by others."
CASA did not elaborate on the details, but members of the TWG have said the problem stems from the way Morgan interacted with Principal Medical Officer Kate Manderson.
In a video posted on the AOPA Facebook page on Wednesday, Morgan said he did not support the TWG's attempt to recommend an arbitrary weight limit on self-certification and accused Manderson of "doing what's easy, not what's right."
"CASA is supposed to be an evidence risk-based regulator, but there is not a single document, not a single formula, not a single report; there's nothing on the table ... other than a bunch of emotional, anecdotal comments," he said, calling an arbitrary weight limit "absurd".
"I've had enough, this is bullshit," Morgan went on to say. "This is supposed to be a national safety regulator, and there's a group of people sitting in a room having an emotional anecdotal pow-wow about how they are going to screw you and your rights across this medical reform."
Morgan also said that CASA had consistently refused to provide AOPA Australia with data on medical certification. He also admitted that he had told Manderson to "shove her technical working group".
In ending the video, Morgan also hinted that he was considering ending his time as AOPA CEO.
"It's been a lot of fun doing this AOPA gig for the last seven-and-a-half years, but I actually think that after today, I have absolutely seen my fill of the crap that's going on down in Canberra," he said, "and I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this any longer."
The self-declared medical TWG was a sub-group of the Part 67 medical reform TWG, which is due to produce documents for public comment soon.
"In practical terms, the group has been debating what level of operational freedoms is important for sport and recreational activity across the wide range of aviation in Australia – so that the level of medical assurance can be appropriately matched," CASA says.
"Parameters like the size or weight of an aircraft, or the altitude that you want to operate at will affect how much medical assurance is needed to keep the risks to passengers or third parties appropriate. These are the types of operational parameters the group has been providing guidance on.
"We expect to be putting a proposed model to the aviation community for comment soon."