After investigating a claim by the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) that Rex - Regional Express (ZL, Wagga Wagga) had a poor safety culture, Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has said it has no current issues with the safety of the regional airline's aircraft.
CASA conducted a two-day audit of Rex's maintenance facility in New South Wales on July 4 and 5 as part of a safety review. This included interviews with randomly selected maintenance engineering staff, who said they felt confident in reporting errors or defects, CASA said in a statement dated July 6.
“All of them said that they felt confident in reporting maintenance errors or defects and they indicated Rex operated according to ‘just culture’ principles,” the authority said. “CASA will carefully assess the information obtained in the course of the audit against the requirements of the applicable civil aviation legislation. Although it normally takes up to 21 days to finalise an audit report of this kind, CASA is expediting the completion of this report.”
Rex, which has denied the allegations in the ALAEA report, arguing they came from a “disgruntled engineer”, welcomed CASA's statement.
“Rex owes the CASA Board, CASA Executive Management and its Director of Aviation Safety a vote of gratitude for carrying out their responsibilities as the guardian of Australian air safety without fear or favour,” Rex said in a statement on July 8. “Rex considers the matter to be closed.”
