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An aviation company is distancing itself from last month's fatal plane crash in Essendon by claiming the aircraft's Bendigo owners were its registered operators at the time.
Australian Corporate Jet Centre co-chief executive officer Vas Nikolovski told the Bendigo Advertiser on the afternoon of the crash they held the operating certificate for the aircraft.
But he said yesterday his company was only told it was the registered operator three hours after the disaster.
A bid by Bendigo-based MyJet to transfer the plane’s operating licence to ACJC was lodged on December 15 last year but stalled when it used an expired credit card to pay for the procedure. The application was cancelled on December 20 when they failed to amend the error.
Only when Mr Nikolovski’s co-CEO Sam Iliades enquired in January about the progress of the transfer did he realise the original application expired and reapplied for the operation transfer.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal heard last month the Civil Aviation Safety Authority shifted the operating licence from MyJet to ACJC on February 16, five days before the plane crashed into the DFO shopping centre in Essendon.
CASA said it told both parties of the change, but Mr Nikolovski yesterday disputed its version of facts, saying it was only an email at 12.01pm on the day of the incident that notified ACJC of the change.
His co-CEO, Sam Iliades, replied to CASA at 1.27pm, writing the plane was destroyed "and had nothing to do with our company".
"Sad news all round but we won’t be requiring the certificate," Mr Iliades wrote.
But Mr Nikolovski told the Bendigo Advertiser in the hour before the crash the plane was registered to his Melbourne aviation company.
"My Jet is the owner, although it's on our certificate to charter and use for commercial purpose," he said shortly after midday.
“In order to be able to operate an aircraft for revenue, for it to be chartered, it needs to be on our operator certificate.
"It's only just come across on our certificate a week or so ago."
Mr Nikolovski also backed away from those comments yesterday, saying he must have been making reference to the CASA email from earlier in the afternoon, and indicated his belief Bendigo aircraft owners Dr Chris Richards and Andrew Hoare were also its plane's operators.
A lawyer acting on behalf of Dr Richards and Mr Hoare yesterday cited the ongoing Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation as the reason the men would not respond to Mr Nikolovski's comments.
CASA also declined to comment while the investigation continued.
Pilot Max Quartermain and four American tourists were killed when the Beechcraft Super King Air collided with the Essendon DFO shopping complex moments after takeoff.
The plane was en route to King Island when it plummeted from the sky.
It was later revealed Mr Quartermain was already the subject of an ATSB investigation at the time of his death for a near-collision in Mount Hotham two years ago.
A preliminary from the ATSB revealed a black box flight recorder was recovered from the wreckage but contained no audio of the crash.
Examination of the planes’ engines found no evidence of “pre-impact failure”.
However, parts of both engines were kept for further analysis.
About 100 emergency service workers responded to the crash, which premier Daniel Andrews later called Victoria’s worst civil aviation disaster in three decades.