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CANBERRA - A careless pilot and poor maintenance are the chief reasons behind one of Australia's worst aviation disasters, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said today.
The bureau today released its final report into the crash of a Transair operated plane that crashed in mountainous terrain near Lockhart River in far north Queensland.
Fifteen people died in the crash.
"Despite the weather and co-pilot inexperience, the pilot in command also used approach and descent speed and a rate of descent greater than specified ... and exceeded the recommended criteria for a stabilised approach," the ATSB said in a statement.
"The pilot in command had a history of such flying."
An animation of the final minutes of the flight, created by the safety bureau, shows the pilots never reacted to the mountain rising up in front of them.
The report said it was almost certain the pilots never saw the mountain.
"Cloud base was probably between 500 feet and 1000 feet above mean sea level and the terrain to the west of the aerodrome ... was probably obscured by cloud."
Transair's maintenance culture was also slammed by the safety bureau.
"There was no structured process within Transair for proactively managing safety-related risk associated with its flight operations," the report said.
Australia's aviation regulator has not escaped criticism in the investigation either.
"In addition to the serious pilot and company contributory factors, if the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's guidance to inspectors on management systems and its risk assessment processes had been more thorough, the accident may not have occurred."
Transport Minister Mark Vaile said he had written to CASA chief executive officer Bruce Byron.
"I want to ensure that we learn the lessons from this tragedy and that our regional airlines and CASA put in place measures that address the ATSB's findings on the contributing factors to the accident," Mr Vaile said in a statement.
Opposition transport spokesman Martin Ferguson shied away from immediately calling for Mr Byron's sacking.
"I simply want to say to the Australian government that it's about time you got serious about aviation safety," Mr Ferguson told reporters.
"In the last two years ... we have seen three ministers.
"The CEO of CASA has been in place for three and a half years, I would have thought that he had time to actually fix what have been perennial problems in CASA over a decade."
- AAP
