Inquiries & Recommendations

Ngā ketuketutanga me ngā tūtohunga

At 1112 on Sunday 13 April 2008, ZK-IAV, a Eurocopter AS355 helicopter, departed from Wellington International Airport on a visual flight rules flight to Marlborough Sounds, with the pilot and one passenger on board.

The pilot was to fly three passengers from Great Barrier Aerodrome to Auckland Airport. She commenced taxiing the aircraft at a slow walking pace from the parking area to the take-off point for runway 24. The rising sun shining through the windscreen from a low angle made taxiing difficult and the pilot did not recognise that the aircraft was tracking toward a 1.5m deep drainage ditch. The pilot sighted a marker tyre in an unexpected position but was unsuccessful in an attempt to change the aircraft's direction.

On Sunday 17 May 1998, at 1530 hours, the carriages of Glenbrook Vintage Railway Train 31 ran away down a grade and collided with the engine which had been detached for coaling during a scheduled stop at Pukeoware. One minor injury occurred to a passenger as a result of the low-speed collision.

On the afternoon of Tuesday 20 January 1998 the pilot/owner of ZK-EKS was completing pre-take-off checks at Ashburton Aerodrome, at the commencement of a flight to West Melton Aerodrome, when he became aware of an unusual smell similar to exhaust fumes. He shut the engine down without delay, and he, and the three children accompanying him, vacated the aircraft.

In August 2014, a Squirrel helicopter (AS350) took a ski party to a high ridgeline on Mount Alta near Mount Aspiring National Park. The helicopter struck the steep, snowy slope and rolled down the mountain. One occupant died and all others were injured.

At about 1640 on Tuesday 19 September 2000, Train P28 Pahiatua - Palmerston North shunting service passed signal 4R at Danger and entered the main line at Woodville which was occupied by opposing Train 601 Bay Express passenger express. Train 601 had a Clear Proceed signalled route and was not expecting to stop. The conflict was soon realised and both trains were brought to a stop about 750 m apart. Train P28 derailed when its locomotive engineer tried to reverse off the main line through a set of points that had been "run through" when the signal had been passed at Danger.

On Tuesday 16 November 2004, HL7597 was a Boeing 777-200, operating as flight AAR 607 on a scheduled flight from Incheon, South Korea to Auckland with 200 passengers and 17 crew on board. As AAR 607 approached Auckland runway 23L, a work party was cleared onto the closed section of the runway for further work. However, the work party were concerned about the low approach of the landing aircraft, so elected to remain clear of the runway.

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 Thursday 14 December 2000, at 1804, Piper PA23-250D Aztec ZK-DIR landed at Gisborne Aerodrome. Shortly after landing its nose undercarriage leg collapsed aft. The pilot and 4 passengers on board the aircraft were uninjured. Nothing conclusive was found showing why the undercarriage leg collapsed. Three scenarios are discussed as possible causes. The more likely possible cause was that play in the drag strut bushes somehow contributed to a mechanical down lock malfunction, but this could not be replicated during testing. No safety issues were identified.

At about 1330 on 21 June 2007, the specialised bulk iron sand carrier Taharoa Express left its single buoy mooring in Port Taharoa to seek refuge in Tasman Bay from forecast severe weather. The ship had been scheduled to have a slurry of about 116 000 dry tonnes of iron sand mixed with water pumped aboard. Earlier during the loading process the ship’s duct keel had flooded with water from the slurry-loading process, disabling the ship's ballast and cargo de-watering systems.

[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.]

Passenger train parts at low speed, inspection and response gaps exposed. A cracked coupler, unnoticed in maintenance, caused carriages on the TranzAlpine tourist train to part. Power braking stress, missed alarms, and no procedure for crew to deal with partings revealed wider risks.