Inquiries & Recommendations

Ngā ketuketutanga me ngā tūtohunga

[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 Friday 8 September 1995, at approximately 1640 hours, as a Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft ZK-SFA was approaching to land at Picton Aerodrome the pilot saw the nose light of one of a loose formation of four RNZAF Macchi MC 39 aircraft approaching from the opposite direction at a similar height to that of his aircraft. He took evasive action and the nearest Macchi passed approximately 300 metres from the Caravan.

[Investigation incorporated in report 04-123. Please refer to that report.]

On Thursday 27 February 2014 the Northern Explorer passenger train was on its journey from Auckland to Wellington. The train passed through Te Kauwhata station at 0937 with 108 passengers and five crew on board, heading towards the Te Onetea Road level crossing about 3.5 kilometres further south.

On 29 August 2002, an incident occurred at Maimai when a locomotive engineer was authorised by train control to enter a section of track already occupied by a rail contractor. The locomotive engineer saw the contractor and stopped the train short of the work site.

On Wednesday 25 October 1995 at 0915 hours ZK-HKM, a Robinson R22 helicopter, broke up in flight and fell to the ground hitting State Highway 35 to the north-east of Opotiki. The pilot and a shooter died in the accident. The cause of the accident was the failure of a tail rotor blade on which an unauthorised repair had been carried out. The safety issues identified include the need to positively establish the history of critical components fitted to certificated aircraft, or to have the components supplied through approved distributors.

On Wednesday 14 June 2000 at about 0100, Train 630 Wellington to Napier express freight overran its track warrant limit by about 1100 m. The overrun occurred when the locomotive engineer did not identify and stop at the limit of his track warrant authority at Tapuata and continued on before coming to a stop about 100 m from No 3 FI points indicator at the south end of Dannevirke station.

At about 0750 on 13 February 2001, the crew were performing a lifeboat launching drill shortly after the vessel "Nicolai Maersk" arrived in Auckland. While attempting to return the port lifeboat from the boat deck level to its stow position, the davit winch motor repeatedly tripped on overload. In order to stow the lifeboat, the davit arms were raised by manually closing the contactor located in the lifeboat winch starter box one deck below, to operate the winch motor. Manual closing of the contactor had the effect of bypassing the safety stop limit switches.

At about 1142 on 22 November 2005, ZK-DZG, a Fletcher FU24-950 agricultural aeroplane was on a ferry flight to Whangarei Aerodrome with the pilot and a loader-driver on board when its vertical fin failed. The fin failure made the aircraft uncontrollable and it descended into trees, 10 kilometres from its destination. The aircraft was destroyed and both occupants were killed. A pre-existing network of cracks in the leading edge of the vertical fin had reached a critical size and had reduced the structural strength of the fin to such a degree that complete failure resulted.

[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 10 June 1993 as the train approached Naenae Station at about 60 km/h, a man was seen running across the tracks. He was fatally injured when struck by the train.

On the night of Tuesday 3 May 2005, Fairchild-Swearingen SA227-AC Metro III aeroplane ZK-POA, operated by Airwork (NZ) Limited, was on a night air transport freight flight with 2 crew and 1790 kilograms of cargo when it suffered an in-flight upset which developed into a spiral dive. The crew did not recover control and the aircraft became overstressed and broke up, to fall in pieces about rural farmland near Stratford. Both crew were killed and the aircraft and cargo destroyed.