The origins of this accident (and many others) lie in the Swedavia Report of the late '80s, when the NZ government started to move away from the old MoT-CAD model (ie the British system) to the pseudo-American system we have now. The focus shifted from regulation to what could best be described as a kind of hands-off self-regulation.
I once went through the process of applying for a job with the CAA as an Ops Inspector. Nearly took it, too, until it was explained to me that my job would consist of making sure that operators had up-to-date manuals. If the manuals were up to date, I was told, it was assumed that the operator was doing the right thing and obeying (all) the rules. The obvious stupidity of this assumption has apparently never been seriously addressed, despite United Aviation, Koromiko, various light aircraft ploughing into terrain for no good reason, and so on.
The non-interventionist policies of the CAA are a joke, and it is about time somebody challenged them. As a regulatory body, the CAA fail on a variety of levels. Hopefully some good will come from this accident, but I'm not holding my breath. There simply isn't the quality or depth in the organisation to raise standards to where they should be.
And we pay for it, yet...
