New Zealand News

Air Nz’s C-130 Conference

Eighteen members of the Royal Australian Air Force led by Group Captain John Millhouse of the Richmond base, attended the second Air New Zealand C-130 Maintenance Conference in Christchurch, returning home well satisfied. Group Captain Millhouse, commanding officer of 503 Wing Richmond, said after the last session: “We are going to follow up a number of possibilities which arose here. Among them will be the use of computer data base in connection with repair information. We set up a database earlier this year.” Air New Zealand’s Allan Knox, technical resources manager at the airline’s Christchurch engineering base (where RAAF Hercules undergo heavy maintenance under a contract with Air NZ) said he hoped the second conference would generate a lot more consultation between operators and the engineering base staff.

There was significant interest at the conference in the Lockheed J model Hercules now being offered, with the first prototype transport due for delivery about December next year. The RAAF is reported to be interested in about 12 J models with the Royal Air Force taking more than 25. After the conference – at which 12 technical papers were presented by Air New Zealand engineering staff as well as members of the RAAF and RNZAF – Squadron Leader Andy Woods, RNZAF, Whenuapai, said the two days of talks had yielded “something for everyone.” He had been interested in hearing about Air New Zealand’s extensive engineering repair work on a US National Science Foundation Hercules, at the airline’s Christchurch engineering base. The work commenced in August 1993 and took nine months and involved 37,000 manhours. At the time of the conference three C-130s operated by US Navy flight crews for the US National Science Foundation were in Christchurch for maintenance or repair work. Christchurch engineers with Air New Zealand have carried out many thousands of man hours work on these three ski equipped transports in the last 20 years. One of which was abandoned in Antarctica after extensive damage on takeoff and became buried by 30ft of snow before being dug out 15 years later and flown to Air New Zealand engineers and repaired in Christchurch.

Glacier Air Crash Report Released

Air accident investigators have found no link between the “significant concentration” of cannabis in a copilot’s body and the crash of his Nomad aircraft on a South Island glacier last October. Six tourists and the three crew members were all killed when the Nomad crashed into the Franz Josef Glacier. The chief air accident inspector Ron Chippindale, says the manager of Hibiscus Air Services in Auckland, Roy Broughton, was travelling in the copilot’s seat when the twin engined aircraft struck the glacier. Mr Chippindale said Mr Broughton was found to have a “significant concentration” of cannabis in his system.

However, investigators could not assess any possible impairment of Mr Broughton’s judgment because they could not tell how recently he had used the drug or how often he had used it in the past. The investigators also did not know whether Mr Broughton had influenced the flight of the Nomad. He might have been merely enjoying the scenery, Mr Chippindale said. The six passengers who were killed were all German tourists making a nine day tour of scenic attractions. Air accident inspectors say Mr Broughton and the other pilot, Philip Klaasen, had scant experience in mountain flying. According to the accident report, the pilots tried to fly the Nomad up the glacier, which was more than twice as steep as the aircraft could manage.

Most flying on the tour had been done by Mr Broughton, 37, but on October 25 he told people he was “taking the day off” and Mr Klaasen would be the pilot. Mr Klaasen’s wife, Margaret, was also on board. Low cloud around the glacier had made local operators of helicopters and light aircraft stop flying for the day. The accident report says the pilots were under a false impression as to the steepness of the slope, “or had an optimistic impression of the aircraft’s climb performance.” At the last moment, says the report, the pilots tried to effect an even steeper climb to avoid the ice, but they crashed so hard all were killed on impact. The Transport Accident Investigation Commission recommended a review of medical standards and certification to consider urine screening for the metabolite in medical examinations if the examiner suspected illicit drug use. The principal medical officer of the CAA, Dr Peter Dodwell, personally believes that the cost of regular testing would be difficult to justify, based on overseas experiences.