THE City of Perth Skyworks will not be rescheduled this year after the death of pilot Peter Lynch and female passenger Endah Cakrawati hours ahead of yesterday’s planned event.
Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi fronted media today to confirm the City’s decision.
Ms Scaffidi said it was “logistically unfeasible” to reschedule, but next year’s event may still happen after a review of yesterday’s tragic accident.
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READ NOW“I don’t believe it’s the end of Skyworks,” she said. “I think it’s an appropriate time to reconsider all operational aspects of such events – aerial flights and the like. And I think it’s an opportunity for a community discussion to be had and to look at new ways to move forward.”
City of Perth chief executive Martin Mileham said going ahead with the event following the crash that killed the two people was not an option.
“Currently we are standing down as per operational procedure which will take three or four days, so we are focussed on community safety,” he said.
“When a fatality occurs, we must stand down… and with a twin fatality, there was no option but to stand down for reasons that include respect for those killed, community safety and protecting the scene for an investigation so we can learn from it.
“The decision was unequivocal.”
He said the operational procedure in place was flawless.
“I don’t believe from our initial reviews that the operational plan has any flaw that stands out; in fact none that I can see,” he said.
“The operational plan is designed for such events; we will continue to plan for next year based on what we’ve learned from everything that went happened yesterday.”
Mr Mileham said planning of next year’s skyshow event would commence “almost immediately after the stand down.”
“We will keep the community informed what we plan to do and ultimately we would like to engage the community, we think this is a community discussion that needs to be had,” he said.