The good fortune of Crikey’s readership in having the intrepid Ben Sandilands as its aviation writer has been demonstrated once more with his in-depth reporting of the recently concluded Lockhart River Inquest.

With more than 45 years in journalism, Ben Sandilands is an internationally respected travel writer who over the years has produced incisive articles on a range of aviation topics for “prominent media”. He no doubt has earned 100’s of thousands of dollars over recent years writing for “syndication arms” and “leading newspapers” around the world.

Surely with such a wealth of experience in addition to pouring over transcripts of Parliamentary Committee proceedings, he must have tried his utmost to come to grips with almost 2000 pages of transcript, some 170 exhibits and an array of other documents produced at the inquest to inform himself on the core issues on aviation safety that were examined.

With these “impeccable credentials” in terms of insights into aviation and an understanding of the aetiology of accidents, I only wish that Ben Sandilands could apply those skills to all aviation matters in the passionate pursuit – that we all share – of ensuring public safety in aviation. Indeed one accident comes specifically to mind.

It is almost the 20th anniversary of a controlled flight into terrain accident by a Fokker F27 aircraft of Burma Airways on approach to Pagan. All 49 people on board the aircraft were killed. The reasons for the accident have never really been explained. A journalist colleague of Ben Sandilands was actually awaiting the arrival of the aircraft at Pagan.

Fate was kind to him but without the impeccable credentials of a Ben Sandilands I don’t think he conducted any kind of forensic investigation of why a perfectly good aircraft flew into a mountain. I mean, if getting information out of Australian aviation authorities is hard, imagine the frustrating difficulty of extracting anything from the Burmese government.

However, with the international reputation and respect that Mr Sandilands commands, I am sure he could get to the real reasons for that accident.

Oh, and why, I can hear Ben Sandilands ask, do I specifically mention a CFIT accident of twenty years ago? I suppose it’s just that my father and step-mother were two of four Australians on board that flight.