The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has honoured highly-regarded aviation author Macarthur Job by dedicating its new media studio in his honour.
The ATSB uses the new in-house studio in its Canberra offices to provide media with video and audio content in support of its transport safety investigation reports.
ATSB Chief Commissioner Greg Hood officially named the facility the Macarthur Job Studio during a ceremony on Wednesday, attended by Mac’s widow, Esma Job, and three of their five children.
“When it came to naming our studio, Mac’s name came to mind immediately,” Hood said after unveiling a wall plaque that detailed Mac’s career.
“Mac was a pioneer of aviation safety messaging in Australia, editing the principal safety promotion publication of the Department of Civil Aviation’s Air Safety Investigation Branch – the Aviation Safety Digest.”
“For 14 years, Mac edited and contributed to the Digest, known in aviation circles as the ‘crash comic’, and he later became a highly-regarded author on aviation safety with his highly acclaimed Air Crash and Air Disaster book series.”
Mac was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2003 for “services to the promotion of aviation safety”. Other awards included a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the National Aviation Press Club (NAPC) in 2007, and in 1997 both the Aviation Safety Foundation of Australia’s ‘Aviation Safety Award‘ for “aviation safety excellence” in the ground support category and AOPA’s ‘Bill Adams Trophy’ for ”the most outstanding contribution to aviation by an AOPA member”.
Mac’s NAPC award citation highlighted: “one of the quiet achievers in journalism and a person who has dedicated his considerable writing and flying skills to furthering the cause of air safety”.
A contributor to Australian Aviation over many years, in more recent times Mac wrote a number of aviation book titles and was a contributor to Aero Australia magazine.
Mac passed away in August 2014 aged 88.
