Raw Data,
Yeh you are right.... I suppose I am just venting my spleen at everyone at the moment. I do sincerely appologise to the kiwi's. I have numerous kiwi friends and from what I have seen of your country it is far from sad!
On the point of damage prior to the Air NZ arrival... yes, you are also correct on that point. As I said in the original post there will be "mountains of paper and gigabytes of computer memory" devoted to the causal chain of events that led to this organisational accident. However the lack of business accumin in regards to the purchase of the second half of the once proud Ansett defies belief. The lack of ability to stop it going as far as it did is also unforgivable. While passing the buck to previous owners has some justification.... diverting ultimate blame does not wash with me or with most economic comentators on both sides of the ditch.
Raw Data - if you are caught up in all this please accept my sincere regrets (and I'm not being sarcastic). As 'prospector' has said - it looks like those most at fault in all of this will be the ones to walk away scott free.