A Queensland skydiving company whose plane crashed in 2014, killing five people, passed safety audits before and after the fatal accident.

September 27, 2018

Volunteer auditors had deemed safe a Queensland skydiving company whose plane crashed and burned killing five people in 2014 despite a prior plane crash and emergency landing.

Australian Parachuting Federation annual safety audits between 2010 to 2014 found the Adrenalin Skydivers business then owned by Paul Turner was operating within the industry’s guidelines.

APF safety manager Richard McCooey told a Brisbane inquest into the fatal crash on Thursday that in 2014 audits of parachute safety, aircraft maintenance and the jump pilots were conducted by volunteers with no specialised aircraft or flying knowledge.

This led the governing body’s auditors to miss safety defects on Mr Turner’s plane’s fuselage that were found by crash investigators after an accident at Caboolture in March 2014.

All five people aboard the aircraft died when the Cessna 206 crashed. They were first-time skydivers Joey King and his fiancee Rahula Hohua, pilot Andrew Aitken and instructors Glenn Norman and Juraj Glesk.

Since 2016, auditors with specialised knowledge had been conducting the audits, Mr McCooey said.

The inquest heard the Australian skydiving industry had grown rapidly in the decade prior to the crash and its governing body had struggled to keep up with the pace of growth.

The pilot seat sliding back from the controls is thought to have caused the crash, which occurred during clear weather.

Mechanisms to prevent Mr Aitken’s seat suddenly sliding backward on its rails away from the controls were missing, according to crash investigators.

The company was allegedly warned about the dangers of not having the seat-stop mechanisms, comments Mr Turner previously claimed he was not privy to.

Mr Turner also denied an allegation he was offered a seat stop but refused to accept it, instead claiming Cessna couldn’t supply one.

The inquest heard claims Mr Turner was forced out of operating at Gladstone airport because one of his light aircraft crashed in 2010.

Mr Turner told the court he had gone to jail for stealing before falling in love with skydiving and working his way up to becoming a chief instructor.

The inquest continues.