Authorities spokesman Josef Mechtler confirmed on Monday in response to a request from a “Kurier” report that it was being examined whether the company had failed to provide its pilots with the relevant training on how the weather radar works. The AUA rejected the allegations.
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Mechtler confirmed that the suspicion was based on information that an expert received from a pilot. The public prosecutor’s office ordered the relevant training documents to be secured, and the AUA had already submitted them. The documents will now be examined by the public prosecutor and the aviation and accident analysis expert. The AUA is said to have “manipulated the company’s internal documentation system for training so that training courses that were not actually carried out appear in the personnel file as having been completed,” the daily newspaper quoted from the judicial file.
“Significantly more training than legally required”
The AUA had “taken a stand on this with the public prosecutor’s office” last Friday, the company said upon request: “We reject in the strongest possible terms the accusations that have been raised about these issues and have been made by an anonymous person.” According to the information, legal action is being prepared against this person or against unknown persons. It was also noted that the AUA carries out “significantly more training than is required by law” in the training and education of its pilots.
As part of the supervision of airlines with regard to compliance with the requirements, Austro Control will “follow up on the information,” said spokesman Markus Pohanka in response to an APA request. “At the moment we are not aware of any voluntary disclosures,” said Pohanka about the “Kurier” report, according to which there are said to be two voluntary disclosures by airline captains.
Investigations against the pilots
The two pilots of flight OS 434 on June 9th are also being investigated for negligent endangerment of the public. Mechtler noted that the public prosecutor’s office does not yet have the data from the analysis of the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. The authorities had ordered the seizure, but legal action was taken in this regard.
In June, the Airbus A320 got into a thunderstorm on its way from Palma de Mallorca to Vienna in Styria, causing severe turbulence. The plane still landed safely at Schwechat airport, but was damaged and could only resume scheduled flight operations after repairs.
