Editorial: Bondi stabbings, Sea World Helicopters inquiries vital
They might be difficult for grieving families, but inquiries into tragic events are needed for the broader benefit of society, writes the editor.
Opinion
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Official inquiries into deadly events are gruelling affairs for everyone, from the first responders to the survivors and the family members hearing, possibly for the first time, the details of their loved ones’ deaths.
Businessman John Singleton’s call for the shelving of the upcoming coronial inquiry into Bondi Westfield shopping stabbings a year ago is understandable: His own daughter Dawn was, at the age of 25, the youngest of the six people fatally stabbed by mentally ill Queenslander Joel Cauchi before he was shot dead by a policewoman.
Mr Singleton acknowledged the need for answers, such as why Cauchi was taken off his schizophrenia medication, but he said he was worried about the family or loved ones of those people who were killed and didn’t see why their privacy should be upset by an inquiry.
It’s a dreadful price we ask of the families of victims killed in circumstances judged by the authorities to require further close examination – to understand just what happened, what went wrong and how it could be avoided.
Family and friends of the four people killed in the January 2023 Sea World Helicopters tragedy – together with the survivors and everyone else caught up in the horror of the day – are currently facing the same trauma, being reminded of their worst memories.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has just released its third and final 200-page report into the incident, which, in the words of the bureau’s chief commissioner Angus Mitchell, revealed that “a series of compounding risk failures (had) led to a catastrophic outcome”.
These included a faulty radio system, the use of a brand-new helicopter with different lines of visibility, and various operational procedures – a series of “holes”, as Mr Mitchell described them, which lined up and resulted in disaster.
He noted that “unfortunately that is the case with every aviation accident we investigate. These things do not just happen out of the blue.”
But he added that the scenario that occurred on January 2 would not occur today as a result of the changes made by Sea World Helicopters.
And that is exactly why these painstaking – and painful inquiries – need to be held – to make sure nothing similar happens again.
Unfortunately for the families, the formal inquiring is not yet over – there is still a coronial inquiry to come to consider all the relevant matters into the deaths.
And as we report today, there is also civil action pending.
The collision of the two choppers claimed the lives of Sea World Helicopters chief pilot Ash Jenkinson, British newlyweds Ron and Diane Hughes and Sydney woman Vanessa Tadros. Other passengers including Mrs Tadros’ 10-year-old son Nicholas. Victorian woman Winnie de Silva and her nine-year-old son Leon were seriously injured.
It was an unimaginable tragedy that has affected the lives of many and apparently happened only because of the unfortunate alignment of a series of “holes”. The ATSB’s investigations and recommendations will presumably further improve Australian air safety standards.
Cold comfort for grieving families perhaps, but it’s a process that needs to be gone through for the broader benefit of society.
SOCIAL MEDIA’S DEPRAVITY
The depths of the social media giants’ depravity is finally being revealed in evidence given to a US Senate committee.
Yesterday a whistleblower, Facebook’s former director of global public policy Sarah Wynn-Williams, confirmed what has been long suspected: that the platform intentionally prioritises profits over the wellbeing and safety of kids.
She spoke about the “unfathomable” amount of data collected by Facebook, and how it was sent to advertisers who used it to target kids at their most vulnerable.
“Facebook was targeting 13 to 17-year-olds,” Ms Wynn-Williams said, defying a gag order from Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
“It could identify when they were feeling worthless or helpless or like a failure, and they would take that information and share it with advertisers.”
It might not be surprising, but it is a truly shocking admission. It’s no wonder that we’ve seen skyrocketing levels of anxiety and depression among teens when we see how they have been so cruelly manipulated.
We hope that Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg will one day have the guts to face the senate committee and explain his actions, but we’re not holding our breath.
Thanks to The Courier-Mail’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, Australian children are now protected by laws that ban social media until they are 16, with trials on now to develop real protections that the platforms will use.
Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here
Originally published as Editorial: Bondi stabbings, Sea World Helicopters inquiries vital
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