Full text of the ERA decision:
https://www.employment.govt.nz/asset...ckland-305.pdf
Operational Incidents involving Mr Cross
[27] During Mr Cross’ employment with Air NZ there had been four incidents which had given rise to concern regarding Mr Cross’ performance in circumstances of stress. These were:
(i) December 2003
[28] During an operational A230 flight in which Mr Cross was the pilot-in-charge, there was an unstable ILS approach which had given rise to a Safety Investigation Report.
(ii) May 2014
[29] During an operational flight from Perth to Auckland during which Mr Cross was the pilot-in-charge, the First Officer was unable to regain access to the flight deck from the cabin as a result of Mr Cross not unlocking the door.
[30] Subsequently Mr Cross was referred to a Clinical Psychologist to assess his emotional/adjustment abilities.
(iii) October 2014
[31] Mr Watson said that he was undertaking a six-monthly TDPD for Mr Cross on 12 October 2014, in which ‘windshear’ was selected as a simulated event on take-off. Windshear is a serious weather-related event which could possibly create a crash situation.
[32] Mr Watson explained that during the windshear event a loud alarm sounds “WINDSHEAR, WINDSHEAR” and flight deck screens flash red.
[33] Mr Watson said that when the windshear alert sounded on take-off Mr Cross did not react and appeared not to have recognised the windshear simulation but instead flew through the windshear incident.
[34] The windshear incident stimulated on landing should have triggered an immediate response from Mr Cross to perform the ‘Windshear Escape Manoeuvre’ however he appeared not to respond to the windshear warnings and instead performed a ‘Go Around Manoeuvre’.
[35] The simulator exercise had been marked as a ‘2’ in terms of the assessment and Mr Cross was required to re-fly and did so to a satisfactory standard.
(ii) March 2015
[36] Mr Cross’ next TDPD was on 23 and 24 March 2015. Mr Watson said that during that simulator exercise an autopilot failure at an altitude of 200 feet had been selected and was simulated. Again, significant alarm sounds and messages were displayed to indicate that the autopilot had disconnected.
[37] However, rather than Mr Cross taking manual control of the aircraft as should have occurred because this was the proficiency being tested, Mr Watson had observed him turning to concentrate on trimming the rudder trim with no hands on the control wheel. As this manoeuvre required Mr Cross to look backwards and downwards, he had no visual contact on the instruments or what was occurring at the flight deck windows.
[38] Mr Watson said that at a late stage Mr Cross appeared to have some recognition that things were very wrong and tried to take control, however this was not successful and the simulator had crashed.
[39] This was a significant event and Mr Cross’ proficiency was marked ‘1’, which was a full failure. There were no re-flies in that situation and following this incident Mr Cross was stood down from flying duties.