Family remembers Glider crash victim

Only then did Catherine Brassill realise he intended doing acrobatics.

“It would have been understandable given the short time I had known him that I would have been anxious, suddenly finding myself hurtling around in the air, looping the loop and doing various other manoeuvres, but it says a lot about his presence as a pilot that I was not at all concerned,” Dr Brassill told a coronial inquest at Goulburn Courthouse on Friday.

“The minute you entered an aircraft with Andrew you knew you were in the presence of an incredibly gifted and safe pilot.”

This was just one of several emotional tributes to the late Andrew Ahern. The 50-year-old Mosman man died in a gliding crash at Carrick airfield, north of Goulburn on April 27, 2013. An incoming Nimbus glider clipped the tail of the Blanik in which he and Tallong man, Lindsay Gamble, were taking off.

Dr Brassill recalled that just two days earlier, the couple had celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary. On a long drive in the country, they talked freely and happily.

“He said some really lovely things to me which I will always treasure,” she said.

“Several times he repeated: ‘I love spending time with my wife.’ Who could have believed that less than 48 hours later he would be dead?” Mr Ahern’s daughters, Elizabeth, 22, and Felicity, 18, remembered a doting father. He would attend every one of Felicity’s rowing regattas, telling her to do her best but proudly hugging her no matter what the result.

“Over the 17 years, Dad made a huge impression on my day to life,” Felicity said.

“He was a great role model and a great father but he was always a father first…I miss him every day because there is no-one quite like Dad.”

Elizabeth described a kind, highly ethical and intelligent father who had a “wicked sense of humour.”

“I was incredibly lucky to have the most wonderful father until eight days before my 21st birthday, and I wish he could be with us forever.”

 Mr Ahern’s elderly mother was too ill to attend last week’s inquest but sent a message. He was her only child.

“At 88 I never thought I would still be around and he would be gone,” Dr Brassill read.

“Life is very empty today.”

The five-day inquest before Coroner Mary Jerram examined the cause and manner of Mr Ahern’s death and whether it was avoidable.

He had gone for a day’s flying with the Southern Tablelands Gliding Club. On April 27 there were just two gliders in the air and a total seven people at the field.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Peter Aitken put it bluntly in his final submission.

“There was an extraordinary lining up of all the holes in the Swiss cheese to create the tragedy that unfolded,” he said.

Mr Aitken contended there was no single cause but multiple factors at play. These included system and human failures at the airfield.

He attributed this to a degree of “complacency” about safety procedures, which Gliding Federation of Australia, Drew McKinney had also highlighted in his investigation.

He submitted that the use of a single runway for takeoffs and launches and the location of a launch point near a tall row of pine trees had hindered the views of ground personnel and incoming gliders. Nobody that day had looked for the Nimbus, piloted by 72-year-old Canberra man, Peter Jolly.

Mr Jolly had right of way as the landing pilot.

Mr Aitken also pointed to the failure of radio communications between people on the ground charged with monitoring safety.

Some did not hear the Blanik’s takeoff call and nobody heard the Nimbus’s downwind and base leg calls.

Mr Aitken said ground operators were also possibly distracted. A visitor and former glider, Greg Gibbons had tied the cable to the Blanik before launch, though he was not authorised to do so.

Club member Colvin Berry took over at the last minute but and in fact nobody had been allocated to the ‘wingman’s task’ he was performing.

As such, Mr Aitken has called for far greater definition of various ground roles at the club. This would also clarify whose role it was to look out for airborne craft and the decision making hierarchy for critical aspects of operation.

Importantly, Mr Aitken recommended to the coroner that the Gliding Federation of Australia (GFA) review and audit the Southern Tablelands Gliding Club’s safe operating procedures. He also suggested a broader audit of all winch-operated gliding operations.

Additional recommendations included a streamlining of VHF radio operations and improvements to other communications and safety measures on the ground and in the air.

Magistrate Jerram will consider these together with submissions from barristers for the Ahern family, the GFA, the Club, CASA and Mr Jolly.

She will hand down a decision on Thursday, October 2 at Glebe Coroners Court.

Outside the inquest, Dr Brassill said she knew the process wasn’t going to be easy but was grateful for the support of the family, friends and club members.

“..The whole purpose of me asking for this inquest was so that no other family, hopefully, will get a knock on the door like we did from the police and that greater safety and greater awareness of safety and legislative changes I have specifically asked for will result.”