The Microflite air transport operations risk assessment for poor weather conditions did not consider the risk controls required for inadvertent instrument meteorological conditions. Rather, it relied on their pilots using the actual or forecast conditions to cancel their operations to manage the threat of poor weather.
The risk assessment provided by Microflite meets the intent of this safety issue by presenting VFR into IMC as a standalone item in their risk register with their controls for this risk and the status of those controls. However, the risk assessment does not provide assurance of recovery from a VFR into IMC event, but it is acknowledged that Microflite has introduced additional preventive controls, such as their pre-flight risk assessment and task rejection policy to reduce the level of risk.
On 6 April 2023, Microflite advised the ATSB that they had compiled a dedicated risk assessment for VFR into IMC, which captured several of their associated proactive safety actions for this accident.
On 21 November 2023, Microflite provided the ATSB an updated copy of their risk report, which was available to all Microflite personnel on their safety management database. Furthermore, Microflite reported:
