Ex a Parlliamentary news service
Calls for big improvements from a coroner and the auditor-general to the way the Civil Aviation Authority polices the skies will be heeded, the authority’s chairman vowed today.
No area would be left unturned, Ron Tannock said after admitting that the authority had not stuck to its “non-compliance no-fly rule” when it let a pilot with a poor safety record continue to fly and he went on to crash, killing himself and seven passengers.
The authority had to face up to responsibility for that, he said.
He and Transport Minister Annette King announced that the authority would adopt all the recommendations made about lax safety monitoring and aimed at preventing a repeat of the Air Adventures air crash near Christchurch three years ago.
The 16-year-old legislation governing the authority is to be reviewed and the powers and functions of its director will be re-examined, but Mrs King is not retreating yet from the rules-based, self-regulation model of the system.
Mrs King expressed confidence in the CAA board after meeting the chairman and his deputy this morning to discuss Christchurch coroner Richard McElrea’s critical report into the crash that killed seven Crop and Field staff after they took a chartered flight with Air Adventures pilot Michael Bannerman.
Mr McElrea found Mr Bannerman had broken several civil aviation rules on the flight and that the authority seemed to have ignored its own risk assessments of his operation, despite having recorded 20 previous incidents involving Mr Bannerman.
Mr McElrea made more than 30 recommendations for better safety monitoring and stronger enforcement of regulations and incident reporting.
These include a system for recording passenger complaints, demerit points for pilots, an urgent review of single pilot training and that the Transport Minister consider establishing a confidential incident-reporting system or an office of aviation ombudsman.
Separate Audit Office reports have criticised monitoring procedures of authority inspectors.
Mr Tannock, who was not chairman at the time of the crash, admitted that the authority had not stuck to is own rules which bar an aircraft from flying if it is in breach of safety rules.
Asked about whether he took responsibility for that he replied:"I think the Civil Aviation Authority has to face up to that."
He promised improvements across the general aviation sector, which covers all air operators outside big commercial airlines.
He said he had been touched by the comments of a crash victim’s family member who hoped the CAA would take note of the coroner’s recommendations and that their loved one would not become another statistic in its database. “That is one of the things my colleagues and I are going to be working on. There will be no area that will be left unturned,” he said.
Neither Mrs King nor Mr Tannock would discuss CAA director and chief executive John Jones’s performance or his future.
Mr Jones has statutory independence.
Under the Civil Aviation Act he is not responsible to either the minister or the five-member authority over particular cases related to enforcement action, including inspections and audits, but he has been criticised for ignoring his own internal advice, more recently in relation to safety at Taupo airport.
Mrs King said it was not her job to rein in Mr Jones and issues around the director’s powers, including his powers to delegate to others, were broader than the matters covered by the coroner, but she thought they ought to be looked at.
A review of the act would help her assess if the present model for the sector needed changing but she said the authority board had advised her the basic model was sound, but things could be done better.
In particular rule making needed to be sped up, all rules regularly reviewed and consideration given to emergency rules.
Mrs King said both the authority and her ministry had agreed the recommendations would be put in place as soon as possible and that progress would be updated publicly every month.
The scope of the review of the legislation would be known within a month.