Australian official slams Qantas inquiry

SYDNEY, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Australian Sen. Kerry O'Brien says the Civil Aviation Safety Authority investigation into Qantas Airways Limited incidents has been mishandled.

The Labor Party official said while the aviation group has six investigators looking into a series of midair incidents involving the Australian airline, the safety authority should be looking deeper into "public concerns" regarding Qantas, The Melbourne Sun-Herald said in its Sunday edition.

"CASA should be issuing Qantas with a 'please explain' about the matters which have come to public attention recently," O'Brien said. "It is nothing less than their job to inquire into public concerns about Qantas."

The politician also criticized the civil authority for not taking action before the aerial incidents that included have a midair explosion that left a hole in a Boeing 747's fuselage.

"It is not good enough for the regulator to respond after the event," the senator told the Sun-Herald. "One would hope that they had been applying the same level of scrutiny, or something approaching it, in the lead-up to these events."