Calling all CVDPA members, supporters and those in the aviation industry!
CASA has now opened consultation on a proposed legislative instrument which will see the reinstatement of an operational test, the passing of which will result in a clean medical with no CVD related restrictions.
CVDPA by and large supports this position and we strongly encourage all our members and supporters to take a few minutes to submit their feedback to the proposal via the link below so that we can ensure this issue is resolved ASAP.
Overall, CVDPA welcomes the proposal by CASA to re-implement an operational assessment for the purposes of CASR 67.150 (6)(c) and 67.155 (6)(c).
The proposed AOCVA simulates an operational situation, as required by those CASR.
You can read CVDPA’s response to the consultation here
In addition to a formal response, the CVDPA directors recently held a webinar where the the proposed changes were discussed in more detail
CVDPA strongly encourages all our members and supporters to take a few minutes to submit their feedback via CASA’s Consultation Portal before consultation closes on the 14th of April.
It’s been quite a while since our last update, but rest assured that work has been ongoing behind the scenes now for some time. We are pleased to advise that these lobbying efforts culminated last week with CASA CEO Shane Carmody announcing the most significant shift in Australian colour vision policy in over three decades.
CVDPA congratulates CASA on the below announcement which finally recognises what we have been arguing all along. Whilst it should never have taken this long and Australia shouldn’t have needed to wait for the New Zealand CAA to lead the way with their changes last year, it is however a result that we are very pleased with and one which opens the door for all current and aspiring CVD pilots to reach their full career ambitions.
The CASA Briefing – February 2020
A solution has been found to a somewhat thorny and long-running issue that is important to a group of pilots. The issue is colour vision deficiency and the way CASA manages safety related assessments as part of the medical certification process. Colour vision deficiency affects about 400 Australian pilots and a three-stage testing process has been in place for some time, with a pass at any stage allowing an unrestricted medical to be issued. Where all three tests are failed then a medical certificate can be issued subject to conditions.
Research in recent years has shown relying on diagnostic tests alone may be unnecessarily limiting when considering the impact of colour vision deficiency on aviation safety. Advances in technology, operating techniques and human factors training can now mitigate many of the safety risks of colour vision deficiency. Technology to assist pilots has developed significantly and the impact of colour vision deficiency on aviation safety should take these changes into account. These factors have been recognised overseas, most recently in New Zealand where a new approach to colour vision deficiency came into effect in May 2019, which includes an operational colour vision assessment. This assessment comprises a ground-based assessment and an in-flight assessment which looks at a pilot’s ability to interpret visual information. A separate assessment is done for day flying and for night flying.
We have decided to adopt this approach to colour vision deficiency assessment and in the short term we will recognise the New Zealand operational colour vision assessment as an alternative to Australia’s current third level of testing. Work is already well underway on the development of an Australian operational test for colour vision deficiency by mid-2020. Any Australian pilots who wish to use the New Zealand assessment can do so now, although it will require travel to that country. CASA has carefully examined all relevant safety issues and believes this new approach offers a practical alternative assessment for colour vision deficient pilots. We have listened to the views of pilots and made judgements based on research and evidence.
In early June 2014, CASA officially announced changes to colour vision policies which completely disregard 25 years of empirical evidence and safe flying by Australian pilots at all levels of the industry. They also ignore the findings of two previous independent tribunals, the latter of which was conducted as a publicly funded test case. These cases remain as the most comprehensive examination into colour vision standards ever conducted in the entire world. Both cases found overwhelmingly in favour of CVD’s posing no safety risk.
CASA have also pre-empted the decision of a further AAT hearing which has not even been heard yet. One has to ask, if there are supposedly no “immediate” changes for existing pilots, then what is the safety case for refusing certification for new pilots into the industry?
CASA’s Principal Medical Officer Dr Pooshan Navathe has emailed all Designated Aviation Medical Examiners (DAME’s) asking them to discuss with CVD affected pilots whether additional restrictions are necessary on their flying privileges (reproduced below with permission).
PMO to DAMEs
CASA has also written to all Australian AOC holders advising them to re-consider whether it is safe to continue to allow CVD pilots to operate. CVD pilots also received a similar letter too.
Each of these above letters needs to be read in conjunction with the following investigative article by Aviation Journalist Paul Phelan:
Recent medical research indicates that the safety-related implications of an individual’s CVD may be more significant than they were initially considered to be.
This [Dr Watson’s treatise] is not evidence of anything of any consequence in this entire debate. Indeed, it is evidence of what a mess the aviation colour perception standard is in worldwide. Imagine relying on this as legal evidence to impress a judge just how dangerous colour vision defective pilots are!
Can CASA point out any recent research presented in the Watson article that indicates anything of the sort? As anybody familiar with the debate would observe, the Watson prose is packed with subjective assertions, mind-numbing statistics, tables and flow charts that are in no way relevant to the “safety-related implications of an individual’s CVD”.
The main conclusions from this research are that:
There is a high degree of variation between States in the detection and medical assessment of CVD applicants; and
The observed variation stems not from the wording of the medical standards of the States, but from the application of those standards.
So 190 separate states have all figured out different but similar satisfactory ways of managing the same issue, right? Furthermore Dr Watson’s research actually refers to:
The paucity of documented aircraft accidents or incidents where CVD is implicated as a contributory factor.” [Because there are none]. And states that:
It is beyond the scope of this report to analyze [analyse] the issues and the debates concerning CV standards and civil aviation.
Additional queries have led to a further letter of response from CASA, including a lengthy list of references. Much of this literature is well out of date (some even dating back to the 1800’s!) and much does not even relate to aviation. It is clear that the focus continues to be on the “testing” of colour vision, rather than examining the core issue of whether or not it makes any difference to flight safety. It is obvious that CASA is attempting to use an approach of quantity rather than quality.
CASA cannot be trusted!
Colour blind pilots will not be grounded in Australia following study: CASA
Today, CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the changes would be years in the making. “There’s certainly nothing for any Australian pilot who has colour vision issues to be concerned about,” Mr Gibson said. “We’re not grounding any pilots, we’re not putting any further restrictions on any pilots, we’re simply saying there is some new information out there which we’re considering.”
Does Mr Gibson care to explain the below letter to a CVD airline pilot with 12,000 hours?
“No not grounding but CASA have taken my ATPL from me. I did a “Real Life” night IFR renewal in 1997. I was assessed as being colour safe which gave me the condition “11” that has been accepted by CASA ever since. The testing officer was and still is an approved CASA ATO.
In 2009 Pooshan tried to take my ATPL but when challenged they reversed the decision immediately. Make no mistake they are aiming to remove all privileges.
Don’t be fooled by the spin doctors. There is a definite agenda here by CASA.
I fly with guys that have 150 hours and still don’t have a car licence and yet they want to take my 12000+ hours LHS Jet out of the industry. Sorry, I forgot I am the “Safety Issue” here.”
After almost two months of being ignored by Avmed, this pilot finally recieved a response after lodging a complaint with the Industry Complaints Commissioner.
“Well after a rather direct complaint to ICC and a rather speedy reply, I might add, CASA has returned my ATPL privileges apologising for the “Imposition”.
However, I am under no illusion that they will have another crack at me further down the track pending the “New Research”.
The PMO must be under a little pressure judging by the way he signed off the letter. Take a look at the numerous spelling mistakes in his sign-off.”
Medical Certification – Frequently Asked Questions
How does CASA deal with pilots with colour vision deficiency?
CASA has reviewed the application of Civil Aviation Safety Regulation Part 67 – which covers the medical certification of pilots – as it relates to pilots with colour vision deficiency (CVD).
CASA is not changing the regulations relating to CVD but is putting in place new procedures to better align with the existing regulations.
There will be no impact on existing pilots as the new procedures will relate to new applicants only.
Australia is more flexible in its approach than other countries in allowing applicants to sit multiple sequential tests for CVD where a fail is recorded and a medical certificate can be issued if at any stage any of the three-level tests are passed. Most overseas regulators do not allow this level of flexibility.
The new procedures are:
Initial issue of class 1 medicals
A pilot must undergo all three stages of tests until a pass is achieved before a class 1 medical certificate can be issued in accordance with regulation 67.150 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations.
Initial issue of class 2 medicals
If the Ishihara test is failed, a certificate will be offered restricted to day VFR only. If the applicant wants this restriction removed, they must pass one of the tests as per Part 67.
Class 1 medical renewals
No immediate change. CASA will write to affected class 1 medical holders and the major airlines advising them to consider the impact their CVD may have on their flying, and such other obligations as they may have to inform their employer of a condition which may affect their ability to safely perform their duties. CVD Class 1 pilots may need to undergo a CAD test in the future.
Class 2 medical renewals
No immediate change. CASA will write to affected pilots asking them to consider the safety-implications of their condition and govern their own flying activities accordingly.
ATPL applications
A certificate will not be issued until a test has been passed as per the existing regulatory requirements.
After a three year legal battle, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal handed down a landmark decision on 20 February 2015 which allows Queensland pilot John O’Brien the ability to be able to exercise his full ATPL privileges, despite having failed all clinical colour vision testing. The result means that he can progress his career from the rank of First Officer to Captain and paves the way for further successful appeals in the future. While there are a few remaining residual restrictions, overall this is a major victory and marks a significant milestone in our campaign.
The Tribunal looked at Mr O’Brien’s 15 year, 6000+ hour flying history and found that he was:
“not likely to endanger the safety of air navigation in the role of Captain”
and that
“his ability to operate aircraft safely with CVD is not in question”
This latest result is now CASA’s third loss in the tribunal on the aviation colour perception standard, after two earlier decisions in the late 1980’s which similarly found that CVD pilots posed no safety risk.
The Empire Strikes Back thread on PPRuNe has offered invaluable support and commentary on all the twists and turns in this long running legal saga. With over 33 pages of discussion and over 100,000 views, it has provided a focal point for the industry and CVD pilots to be able to share their thoughts and opinions. A recent post by “Creampuff” on the thread eloquently dissects this latest AAT result and analyses what it means in legal terms:
CASA’s submissions and contentions in the O’Brien matter were exactly as would be expected from zealots on a crusade, and it remains to be seen whether Dr Navathe was the chief and only CASA zealot, or merely the chief zealot of a bunch that remain. The Tribunal had little choice but to confine its substantive decision to John O’Brien’s specific circumstances. If CASA puts subsequent applicants through what John O’Brien had to go through, you’ll have your answer. According to CASA, it’s a new and much more complicated and scary world compared to the olden days of the Pape and Denison decisions. According to CASA, there’s a greater awareness of the safety risk posed by pilots with CVD based upon conclusions drawn from accident and incident investigations. Fortunately the Tribunal perceived a rather obvious flaw in these contentions – obvious, at least, to someone who’s objective:
“It is significant that in all of those years when many pilots with various forms of CVD have flown there has been little research made available to us upon which that contention was based.”
CASA’s submission was that the CAD test is “a simulation of an aspect of a task required in an operational situation”. However, CASA had little choice but to concede, in its submissions, that the expert they called had acknowledged that the CAD test “does not simulate an aviation task”. But that concession was only in a footnote in the submissions. In my opinion, downplaying inconvenient truths isn’t the behaviour of an organisation with a properly calibrated moral compass.More importantly in my opinion, CASA’s submission was also that even if the CAD test is not one that can reasonably fall within the description of a test that “simulates an operational situation” in terms of CASR 67.150(6)(c):- the AAT does not have jurisdiction to review CASA’s decision to determine the CAD test for the purposes of CASR 67.150(6)(c); and- the Applicant still hasn’t passed any of the prescribed tests.In other words, CASA said that even if the CAD test does not simulate an operational situation as required by the law: Too bad; too sad. The AAT cannot do anything about it and the Applicant’s career certainty, and other people in like circumstances, can go hang.My opinion is that these are not the submissions of an organisation with a properly calibrated moral compass. I ask myself: What would I do if I were working in CASA and I were considering the question: “What if we have this wrong and the CAD test is not a test that simulates an operational situation in terms of CASR 67.150(6)(c)?” I would have a cold chill down my spine, because I would be wondering how much stress might have been caused, and how many careers might have been put in disarray, if CASA has it wrong.I would have this nagging feeling that perhaps the operational reality of the tens of thousands of hours flown safely in fact by pilots with colour vision deficiencies may mean that they are being treated unfairly by not having the chance to demonstrate compliance with the colour vision standard through the administration of a test that does simulate an operational situation, as stated in the law.I would wonder what valid objection there could be to setting a test that simulates a real aviation situation in which the identification of the meaning of lights that happen to be coloured was a safety-critical activity, to see if the applicant could manage the situation as safely as his or her colleagues without CVD. I would be submitting that if the AAT came to the view that the CAD test does not “simulate an operational situation” in terms of CASR 67.150(6)(c), I would be acting immediately to determine a proper test and reducing the stress and uncertainty for pilots and aspiring pilots, whether or not the AAT had jurisdiction to review the decision. That would seem to me to be the fair and honourable thing to do.But that’s just me. It is fascinating to read CASA and its experts’ convolutions to avoid the inconvenient truth that John O’Brien has no problems with PAPI approaches and other tasks in reality. Some highlights from the Tribunal’s decision:
The information obtained by CASA from [CAD] testing of Mr O’Brien is little more than that to which they were already aware, having had the diagnosis of protanopia confirmed in previous tests. … In their paper 2006/04, the UK CAA identified two tasks as being the most safety critical, demanding of colour vision and without redundancies. These were the coloured red green parking lights for positioning a plane at an aerobridge and the PAPI lights. … Mr. O’Brien pointed out that he had no trouble seeing these lights and in any case, explained that most airports are now moving to a different system which involved symbols instead of colour. [My comment: Whoops, how inconvenient – first-hand evidence of facts. Perhaps the aviation colour environment is becoming simpler, not more complex…]The UK CAA also decided that the PAPI lights were the more demanding and more safety critical of the two and decided to set the performance criteria of their new CAD on successful performance by subjects in a simulated PAPI test. … The evidence of Professor John Barbur is that the PAPI is the most appropriate test of colour recognition for pilots as it is very demanding in terms of colour vision and there is little or no redundancy in that system which is, in essence, a redundant system to the primary systems in any event.Professor Barbur’s evidence was clear and it seemed to be accepted by the experts from CASA and by Associate Professor Geoffrey Stuart. … There was some disconnect in the evidence of Professor Barbur. Initially he said pilots who pass the CAD test or just missed out should be given the PAPI test but later said that pilots who fail the CAD test should be excluded in terms of pilots. … The evidence of Mr O’Brien was that he has never had difficulty identifying the PAPI light guidance throughout his years of flying; he said he had never incorrectly identified the lights. [My comment: Whoops, more inconvenient first-hand evidence of facts.] The concern raised by CASA was in the context of low visibility close to the runway, such as in the FedEx accident or at 5 km. This is in the context that the PAPI is an additional aid to the primary system within the aircraft, and presumably an aid to a pilot’s visual identification of the runway during approach and landing. [My comment: I’ll return to the FedEx accident later.][After 8 more paragraphs of analysis of the various theories and positions of various experts, we come to this rather startling turnaround:]
Professor Barbur and others urged us not to become overly focused on the PAPI test, reminding us that there are many other colour demanding tasks for the pilot.
In other words, if a candidate with CVD passes “the most appropriate test of colour” – the PAPI test – we should just forget that and look over there at all those confusing colours.It’s almost as if they’ve decided the outcome, and they just move the goal posts as necessary to achieve that outcome. There’s a word for that.This was my favourite bit on this issue:
Professor Barbur also pointed out that performance on the PAPI test could be variable amongst subjects for reasons other than their level of CVD. Some examples of these variables include:(a) Experienced pilots may perform better because they have learnt to use cues such as luminance differences between the reds and whites of the test and there is also a natural variability between subjects in their ability to do this. …
You see: There has to be explanation for the inconvenient truth of candidates passing the test, and it cannot be that the candidate performs just as well as someone without CVD. A couple of CASA FOI’s gave written evidence about how confusingly colourful modern cockpits have become and the scary situations in which complete power failures on the ground have resulted in control towers having to use light signals. At this point of the submissions I thought: At last! Someone from CASA is going to provide some factual evidence about the actual performance of actual pilots with CVD in these real-life circumstances. Perhaps, at last, someone from CASA was going to provide first-hand evidence of the substantially slower performance of pilots with CVD, compared to pilots without CVD, in these confusingly colourful modern cockpits. First-hand evidence to show that despite the design and redundancy of these modern cockpits, and despite their training and experience, pilots with CVD are substantially slower and less effective and efficient than their non-CVD colleagues in those cockpits. Things called “facts” about the performance of CVD pilots in a thing called “reality”. Perhaps, at last, someone from CASA was going to provide evidence of the actual mayhem caused when pilots with CVD were thrust into circumstances in which a control tower could not communicate through VHF and the CVD pilots were unable to arrange separation with other aircraft, use other means of communication with the tower (mobile phone/sat phone), see whether a runway is clear to land and otherwise operate safely. Things called “facts” about the performance of CVD pilots in a thing called “reality”.But, so far as I can tell, no first-hand evidence of those facts was provided by CASA.Now to the FedEx accident.A copy of the NTSB report of the investigation into the FedEx accident is here: http://asndata.aviation-safety.net/r…722_N497FE.pdf. The Executive Summary states, among other things, that (my bolding):
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the captain’s and first officer’s failure to establish and maintain a proper glidepath during the night visual approach to landing. Contributing to the accident was a combination of the captain’s and first officer’s fatigue, the captain’s and first officer’s failure to adhere to company flight procedures, the captain’s and flight engineer’s failure to monitor the approach, and the first officer’s color vision deficiency.
I’d commend the entire report. I’d just note a couple of paras of the Analysis, at pages 53 and 55, bolding mine:
During postaccident interviews, all three pilots reported observing red and white lights on the PAPI display, consistent with normal PAPI operation. [My note: the Flight Engineer was a qualified pilot on type. Hence the reference to “all three pilots”.] Although the flight engineer and captain reported seeing a pink PAPI signal on one of the four PAPI lights at some time during the approach, they also reported seeing red and/or white lights (which would have provided appropriate glidepath guidance) at the same time. … In postaccident statements, the flight crew and ground observers indicated that there were no obstructions to visibility along the approach path. However, the comments made by the first officer (“gonna lose the end of the runway”) and captain (“disappear a little”) suggest that they may have encountered a temporary obstruction to visibility (for example, clouds or mist) as they approached runway 9. If such an obstruction existed, it may also have obscured the PAPI lights. Although a temporary obstruction might help explain the flight crew’s failure to recognize the PAPI guidance while that obstruction was present, it does not explain why the three pilots failed to recognize the presence of four red PAPI lights throughout the rest of the approach. Further, according to FedEx procedures (and FAA regulations), if the approach end of the runway became obscured at any time during the visual approach, the pilots should have performed a go-around.
Who reckons the FedEx accident would not have happened if the first officer had had no CVD?
CASA’s crusade on CVD is, objectively, a focus on the easy trivia at the expense of dealing with the substantial and far greater risks to aviation safety. Easy targets versus hard problems.Of course, it makes no difference to CASA, because they get paid the same either way.
