ANGEL Flight chief Bill Bristow has expressed concern for families in the region who rely on the service to get to medical appointments, despite the Civil Aviation Safety Authority rejecting claims it is moving to shut down community service flights.
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CASA released a discussion paper on safety standards for community service flights conducted on a voluntary basis.
Angel Flight currently has one regular passenger from Armidale, while two families who often use the service from the Inverell area sometimes fly in or out of Armidale depending on weather conditions.
Mr Bristow said the options put forward in the paper had the potential to alter the nature of the charity organisation, which could result in the service closing.
“We are not in a position to comply with those requests,” Mr Bristow said. “We would become the poor man’s Flying Doctor Service.”
In a statement released on Tuesday, CASA asserted the paper was purely to initiate discussion between stakeholders about safety issues. Mr Bristow, however believes the paper is more ominous.
“Discussion paper is a strange term because they are, in effect, saying what they want to happen at the end of the paper, which flies in the face of a discussion,” he said.
“I assume they will get what they want, and what they want is to put an end to Angel Flight.
“We’ve gone 11 years without major incident, which as about 17,000 flights.”
Lesley Hartley and her daughter Maggie are regular passengers with Angel Flight, having flown with them a total of 64 times.
Mrs Hartley, who is based in Inverell, said safety was never a concern while travelling with the Angel Flight volunteer pilots.
“We’ve have no problems whatsoever,” Mrs Hartley said.
Mrs Hartley said Maggie has neuron movement disorder, a condition which requires specialist appointments in Sydney or Brisbane at least 10 times a year.
“[The service] is vital in the amount, the urgency, the cost – it’s vital for our family’s mental health,” she said.
Mrs Hartley said her family would have to move if the charity was unable to continue providing flights.
CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said he expected some changes would take place, but asserted it was “extremely premature” to be discussing impacts of enforced options.
