[Mick M]

Any evidence can be tendered, in court and there is very little information these days that cannot be subpoenaed in legal proceedings, particularly when there is a strong probitive value attached to that information. And prior to that there is also much information, records and data that can be obtained by investigators by way of warrant.

However the discussion here should revolve around the key element of acting in accordance with company training, procedures, aviation law and the manufacturers guidelines. Where you act in accordance with these you place yourself well within a window of protection from prosecution and to a lesser degree, civil liability.

However when you substantially deviate from one or any of these procedures you leave yourself exposed with no reasonable protection because you have done something that is clearly well outside a number of published procedures, all of which exist to safeguard the aircraft and aviation generally. If you choose to embark on a course of action outside these, then you accept a significant personal liability when things go wrong. And when this happens you should expect no leniency merely because you are flying an aircraft.

And as to crew pulling C/B's, well I'd expect they would have a very short and limited future in the industry with any reputable operator should they be caught out doing that.

Operators of other vessels and vehicles who are appropriately licenced to a standard and have to comply with accepted rules and laws are held criminally responsible if their actions are so reckless there is injury or damage caused. In that respect why should aircrew, who have significantly greater training, knowledge and expertise of their equipment be held to a lower standard of accountability than the rest of the community?

CASA obviously prosecutes pilots for detected offences and should continue to do so in the interests of encouraging compliance. The ATSB obviously have aviation safety and safety improvement as their goal and that should not change, but nor is it reasonable to expect that expert crash investigators will not be called to give evidence in criminal proceedings either.