Inquiries & Recommendations

Ngā ketuketutanga me ngā tūtohunga

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.

On Monday 31 July 2006 at about 2054, eastbound express freight Train 826 stopped at Cora Lynn Arrival Signal 10244 on the Midland Line. The arrival signal was displaying a green aspect, while at the same time the facing points were set in the reverse position and the "L" light was not illuminated.

On Saturday 20 November 2005 at about 1400, the restricted limit passenger vessel Milford Sovereign, with a Master, 10 crew and 238 passengers on board, was on a cruise of Milford Sound when it was struck by a gust of wind that heeled the ship and turned it from its intended course. The Master was unable to return the ship to its original course, so decided to continue the turn initiated by the wind and took the ship through 180 onto the reciprocal of its original course and returned the ship to the inner Sound.

On Friday 23 June 2006 at about 0627, the Lady Luck, was returning from a fishing trip in bad weather when it collided with Black (Matatapu) Rock near the southern extremity of Motiti Island. The Skipper of the vessel was able to transmit a distress call on very high frequency channel 16 before he and the other 3 persons on board boarded the liferaft and the vessel sank. Maritime Radio, the Coastguard, the operations centre of the Port of Tauranga and another fishing vessel all received the distress message.

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.

Shortly after 1415 on Saturday 13 May 2006, while travelling from Kaihuka, in the Breaksea Islands Group to Bluff, the fishing vessel Kotuku capsized and later sank. Six of the 9 persons on board perished. The vessel was recovered for investigative purposes but was declared a constructive total loss by the insurance company. Safety issues identified were: the effectiveness of the safe ship management system to maintain vessel compliance the operation of a commercial fishing vessel to transport passengers the general condition and fitness for purpose of the Kotuku