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SafeWork NSW has filed charges against the Goulburn Flight Training Centre and its director, Attilio Giovanni Ferrara, commonly known as John Ferrara, for allegedly breaching workplace safety regulations. Both face two counts each related to these violations.
In his ruling, Judge Andrew Scotting identified the step in question as a “blatant and hazardous snag risk.”
During a sentencing session today, Frank Hoare, the father of the victim, exchanged a glance with Ferrara across the largely empty courtroom.
Despite the circumstances, Hoare expressed that he harbors “no animosity” towards Ferrara or Jim Czerwinski, the pilot responsible for installing the step and operating the aircraft on the incident day.
“Ultimately, there was no malicious intent,” Hoare stated softly.
The men’s families waited four years and 10 months for answers about the accident, a delay that felt like a dismissal of their lost lives, Hoare said.
“Losing our son … has shattered our lives in ways that words have never fully captured,” Hoare said.
“He was not just a name or statistic; he was our son and our joy.
“Every day [since] his death has been filled with a silence that should not exist and a grief that does not lessen with time.”
Hoare hoped the accident would lead to meaningful safety changes in the skydiving industry.
He called on the state coroner to hold an inquest so that formal recommendations could be made.
SafeWork’s barrister, Darien Nagle, urged the judge to consider the scale of the avoidable tragedy.
“The risk was avoidable, the risk was known,” Nagle said.
Evidence at the trial included a short GoPro video taken by a third solo skydiver, showing Welling grinning as he moved towards the open door of the plane while strapped to Hoare.
The footage showed a black strap getting caught on the protruding step, leaving the pair frantically dangling upside-down mid-air.
The pilot attempted several manoeuvres to free the men, including flying low over the airport while staff on the ground stood on top of a four-wheel drive to try and grab them.
The men fell when the plane returned to a higher altitude.
Ferrara made a “sincere and unqualified” apology to the men’s families in an affidavit read to the court.
Judge Scotting offered his condolences, saying he lost his sister in tragic circumstances.
“I understand that pain perhaps better than you might appreciate,” the judge said.
Ferrara will be sentenced on April 17.
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