The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has cancelled Barrier Aviation’s operating certificate after the federal court upheld the authority’s view that it was “not satisfied that Barrier Aviation would not operate aircraft with known defects if allowed to resume operations”.
The permanent cancellation took effect on March 13 after an initial suspension of the airline’s AOC on December 23 last year.
In the course of the suspension, CASA had conducted investigations that confirmed Barrier “had been operating aircraft with serious and known defects, as well as directing pilots to fly these aircraft”. CASA said the known defects had not been recorded on aircraft maintenance documents and that the operator had a poor safety culture and “placed commercial imperatives before safety”.
