Is it Avgas or paperwork which keeps Territory airlines flying ? Recently there has been confusion over the operations of Hardy Aviation in the NT because of a strange problem interpreting written instructions from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
On an AirNorth flight from Darwin to Townsville, passengers found themselves sitting on the tarmac well after the ETD without explanation- until a flight attendant eventually said they had been held up waiting for the necessary paperwork. Passengers sitting near windows on one side noticed that ground crew were seen hurriedly unloading luggage out of the hold and taking it away. The impression was formed that it may have been put in the wrong plane as there was another AirNorth plane further along the tarmac,or else it had not been unloaded in the first place. There was much thumping and banging in the cargo hold; a sweaty looking guy in a high vision safety jacket clambered up the gangway and handed over some paperwork. Blast off.
On another AirNorth flight from Townsville to Darwin , departure was delayed for no announced reason – until it was explained that there had been “ late arrival of paperwork from Darwin.” As that plane flew into Darwin, a passenger began to take photographs of the city. In the process , he turned around and may have taken some snaps out the window behind his seat. On landing , a passenger in the seat behind firmly told the man with the camera that if he had taken any shots which included him in the frame he did not want them put on social media or displayed in any way. Shy , perhaps, or the subject of official paperwork?
