Inquiries & Recommendations

Ngā ketuketutanga me ngā tūtohunga

On Sunday 10 December 2006 at about 1230, the fishing vessel Santa Maria II with a skipper, 4 crew members and a Ministry of Fisheries observer on board was fishing off the Kermadec Islands in Fisheries Management Area 10 when a fire was discovered in the engine room. The skipper issued a distress message while the rest of the crew sealed the engine room and attempted to discharge fire suppressant into the engine room.

On Saturday 2 December 2006, Partenavia P68B ZK-MYF, a light twin-engine aeroplane, was being flown on a cross-country training flight from Napier to Palmerston North, when it had a power loss near Waipukurau. The instructor completed a forced landing into a paddock resulting in moderate damage to the aircraft. There were no injuries.

On 27 November 2006, about 8 minutes after departing Wellington airport on a scheduled flight to Kaikoura with one passenger, the pilot of a Gippsland Aeronautics GA8 aircraft, registered ZK-KLC, felt the engine misfire and saw that the oil pressure had reduced. The pilot immediately returned to Wellington and made a safe landing. The engine had major internal damage, which the evidence indicated had started with the failure of an exhaust valve tappet. The cause of the tappet failure was not determined.

On Tuesday 21 November 2006, at about 1120, Tram 244, operated by Christchurch Tramway Limited, lost its air brake after striking a traffic warning cone. The tram then collided with the rear motor vehicle in a line of cars stopped for a traffic signal. The impact pushed the car forward into a nose-to-tail collision with two cars ahead of it. The tram sustained minor damage and 3 cars were extensively damaged. There were no injuries.

On Thursday 9 November 2006, ZK-HUC, a Robinson R44 helicopter carrying 3 police officers and the pilot, collided with an electricity transmission line during a coastal search. The helicopter incurred minor damage and the pilot landed immediately. He subsequently twice shifted the helicopter to avoid sea damage and to facilitate recovery of the helicopter. The pilot received a serious injury but none of the passengers were injured.

On 31 October 2006, the restricted limit passenger vessel Milford Sovereign was on a cruise of Milford Sound with a master, 9 crew and 181 passengers on board. Shortly after rounding Dale Point at about 1400, the master slowed the vessel in order that the passengers could view some penguins. As the master put the engines astern they both stalled, and before he was able to restart them the bow of the vessel struck the rock wall. The underwater hull was not penetrated so the master resumed the cruise.

At about 0640 on 20 October 2006, the sixth wagon on express freight Train 237 derailed and entered a crossing loop at Utiku, derailing 9 other wagons and bringing down a section of the overhead electric traction line as well. The derailment was caused by the dynamics of a permanently coupled pair of wagons and the design of the modified solid drawbar arrangement when the wagons behind bunched and “ran-in” while the train was under braking on a descending gradient.

On Monday 9 October 2006 at 0806, passenger Train 4045 travelled 526 metres between Britomart station and Quay Park junction with the locomotive engineer not at the controls of the train. The locomotive engineer had left the train to operate a valve to restore air-brake pressure following an uninitiated emergency brake application. Once air-brake pressure had been restored, the train began to move before the locomotive engineer re-boarded the train. There was no damage and none of the 3 crew and 12 passengers on board at the time was injured. Safety issues identified included:

[A preliminary investigation showed that the circumstances were not likely to have significant implications for transport safety. Consistent with section 13 of the TAIC Act the Commission discontinued the investigation and no report was published.]

On Tuesday 12 September 2006 at 0727, flight NZ503, a Boeing 737-319 registered ZK-NGJ started its take-off at Auckland International Airport on a scheduled flight to Christchurch. On board were 2 pilots, 3 cabin crew and 96 passengers.

On Saturday 26 August 2006, at 0907, the lead bogie on passenger Train 9328 derailed when it ran into landslide debris covering the track at 2.474 kilometres (km) on the Johnsonville Line between Wellington and Wadestown. Heavy rain had been falling in the area prior to the derailment. There were no injuries and only minor damage to the train and track. Safety issues identified included: regolith nature of the steep terrain above the Johnsonville Line train control role and responsibilities routine and special track inspections on the Johnsonville Line

Between June 2006 and April 2007 the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (the Commission) launched inquiries into 5 separate platform overrun events on the Auckland suburban rail network. Because there appeared to be a number of common factors contributing to the overruns, they have been combined into this one report.