Inquiries & Recommendations

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[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.]

A Free Flight Kiwi Flyer hang glider collided with a cliff face near Raglan on 24 October 1993. The safety issues identified were the risks of hang gliding alone in remote areas and flying over difficult areas without a preplanned escape route.

On Wednesday 6 February 2002, at about 2152, the log carrier "Jody F Millennium" with a master and 18 crew on board, grounded in the Gisborne approach channel when it encountered large swells as it left the relative shelter of the breakwater while departing from the port. The ship was subsequently driven by the swell on to the shelving shoal area to the north of the channel, where it remained for 18 days before being re-floated. At the time of the grounding the ship was still within the pilotage area, but the pilot had disembarked a few minutes earlier.

The pilot, with a passenger aboard, was making a cross country flight from Takaka in his microlight aircraft. The aircraft was observed to encounter turbulence, due to the prevailing wind conditions, as it flew in the lee of a ridge some 350 feet amsl. The right wing dropped, the nose pitched downwards, and the aircraft continued in a steep spiral to the ground. The passenger was fatally injured and the pilot received serious injuries in the accident.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch investigated this ocurrence on behalf of TAIC, and published their findings as which can be found using the link in the sidebar to the right.

On Wednesday 26 May 1999, at approximately 0730 hours, a rake of empty log wagons was being propelled from the Kinleith railway yard into Carter Holt Harvey Limited's siding when the leading wagon hit the "bull-bars" of a logging truck parked foul of the running road. The remote control operator who was on the leading wagon jumped clear just prior to the collision but stumbled and fell against the wagon and was dragged for approximately 10 m before rolling clear. He received broken ribs and abrasions as a result of the accident.

The Commission assisted the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau of Switzerland in their investigation of this accident. The Swiss report was released 28 September 2011 and is available (in French only) on the Bureau's website using the link in the sidebar to the right. The accident was a collision with terrain after the flight, conducted under visual flight rules, was continued into instrument meteorological conditions.

On Thursday 3 April 1997, at 1912 hours, the Airways Corporation communications network system suffered a failure which caused a temporary loss of all Air Traffic Control very high frequency radio communications in the Wellington Sector. Subsequent modifications to the system and procedures will reduce the chance of a similar failure. A safety issue identified was the inadequacy of the "communications failure" information in the Instrument Flight Guide for pilots, in the case of a failure of communications from Air Traffic Control.

On Wednesday, 13 August 2008 at 0941, express freight Train 845, a westbound Lyttelton to Ngakawau empty coal service, overran its track warrant limit at Reefton. The locomotive engineer continued to drive the train for a further 8.75 kilometres before he realised what had happened and stopped the train. There were no conflicting movements or track engineering occupations.

[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.]