CAA inline for shake up!!!
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CAA inline for shake up!!!
From www.stuff.co.nz
NZ CAA silent over air safety meeting
06 June 2006
Besieged Civil Aviation Authority chairman Ron Tannock left a meeting with Transport Minister Annette King this morning refusing to comment on the outcome.
Mr Tannock said a joint statement would be issued later today after the pair met for more than an hour and a half.
The CAA was hauled in after a series of critical comments about its performance, particularly its monitoring of the safety of small airlines.
Mr Tannock said it had been a "long and very frank discussion" which he would comment on alongside the minister later today.
Asked if he was safe in his position, Mr Tannock said: "I don't think that is an issue at the moment".
He refused to make any further comment.
Ms King called Mr Tannock and his deputy, Hazel Armstrong, last week after a coroner's report raised concerns about the authority's monitoring of an airline involved in a eight-fatality plane crash in 2003.
Today's meeting took place exactly three years after the crash in which pilot Michael Bannerman and seven passengers were killed near Christchurch Airport.
Last week the CAA was also criticised by pilots over the operation of Taupo airport.
Last month MPs expressed concern that the authority's monitoring of "ratbag" airlines could be endangering people's lives.
The concerns followed the Auditor-General's office saying it could report little progress that there had been any improvements following damning CAA audits in 1997, 2000 and 2005.
Among the Auditor-General's findings were that CAA inspectors often ignored procedures for monitoring, recording and following up "critical findings", with one taking more than 400 days to be checked.
Critical findings are ones that place life at risk.
The CAA has said it has acted on the concerns and substantial progress has been made with accident rates falling.
Battern down the hatches here comes a big s
t fight!!
NZ CAA silent over air safety meeting
06 June 2006
Besieged Civil Aviation Authority chairman Ron Tannock left a meeting with Transport Minister Annette King this morning refusing to comment on the outcome.
Mr Tannock said a joint statement would be issued later today after the pair met for more than an hour and a half.
The CAA was hauled in after a series of critical comments about its performance, particularly its monitoring of the safety of small airlines.
Mr Tannock said it had been a "long and very frank discussion" which he would comment on alongside the minister later today.
Asked if he was safe in his position, Mr Tannock said: "I don't think that is an issue at the moment".
He refused to make any further comment.
Ms King called Mr Tannock and his deputy, Hazel Armstrong, last week after a coroner's report raised concerns about the authority's monitoring of an airline involved in a eight-fatality plane crash in 2003.
Today's meeting took place exactly three years after the crash in which pilot Michael Bannerman and seven passengers were killed near Christchurch Airport.
Last week the CAA was also criticised by pilots over the operation of Taupo airport.
Last month MPs expressed concern that the authority's monitoring of "ratbag" airlines could be endangering people's lives.
The concerns followed the Auditor-General's office saying it could report little progress that there had been any improvements following damning CAA audits in 1997, 2000 and 2005.
Among the Auditor-General's findings were that CAA inspectors often ignored procedures for monitoring, recording and following up "critical findings", with one taking more than 400 days to be checked.
Critical findings are ones that place life at risk.
The CAA has said it has acted on the concerns and substantial progress has been made with accident rates falling.
Battern down the hatches here comes a big s
t fight!!
Last edited by ems300; 6th Jun 2006 at 04:02.
Am I a bit confused here?
Last month MPs expressed concern that the authority's monitoring of "ratbag" airlines could be endangering people's lives.
So they should cease monitoring the Ratbags then?
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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.
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.
Te,
Did anyone stand up and take responsibility for what is going on? What I got out of that post was lots of folks saying the train is off the track but everyone is rolling a shoulder and saying nothing to do with me. I should think a few heads ought to roll over what is going on.
Seems another case of bureaucrats failing to do their job, people dying a direct result of that, and no one will play "Pin the tail on the Donkey"!
Did anyone stand up and take responsibility for what is going on? What I got out of that post was lots of folks saying the train is off the track but everyone is rolling a shoulder and saying nothing to do with me. I should think a few heads ought to roll over what is going on.
Seems another case of bureaucrats failing to do their job, people dying a direct result of that, and no one will play "Pin the tail on the Donkey"!
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Eeeee Aaaaaww
CAA takes blame for air disaster
07 June 2006
By COLIN ESPINER
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is promising to change its ways after admitting responsibility for the Air Adventures crash near Christchurch that killed eight people.
"Ratbag" airlines will be grounded faster under an action plan agreed to by the Government and the CAA board yesterday – the third anniversary of the day pilot Michael Bannerman flew his Piper Chieftain into the ground in heavy fog just short of Christchurch International Airport in 2003, killing himself and seven Crop and Food managers.
The CAA yesterday expressed sympathy for the families of the crash victims and pledged to leave "no area unturned" in a top-down review of the Crown entity's systems and practices.
CAA chairman Ron Tannock and deputy board chairwoman Hazel Armstrong met Transport Minister Annette King for a grilling over a highly critical report by Christchurch Coroner Richard McElrea that held the CAA partly responsible for the accident.
"One of the things that touched me was when I read in the coroner's report that one member of one of the families said that he hoped the CAA would take note," Tannock said yesterday.
"There will be no area left unturned because that really was a touching paragraph."
He was speaking as families of the victims of the disaster gathered to commemorate the deaths at Crop and Food near Lincoln.
AdvertisementAdvertisementKing did not ask for Tannock's resignation yesterday, and neither was it offered. But she said the Government was not happy with the level of safety in general aviation – the class below major airlines such as Air New Zealand and Qantas.
"Non-compliance is simply not acceptable. It is not sufficient telling people off. Action has to be taken to make them compliant," she said.
King said the CAA had agreed to implement all 31 recommendations of the coroner, including investigating the possibility of independent safety audits of airlines, and changes to the structure of the authority and the statutory independence of its director.
Tannock said he wanted to express his sympathy to the families. The CAA had put aside $2 million to carry out changes, he said.
The CAA had not grounded Air Adventures because it had not stuck to its own "no-compliance, no-fly" rule, Tannock said.
Asked if he took responsibility for the crash, he said: "I wasn't chairman then but I think the CAA has got to face up to that."
Asked to assure the public that the safety record of minor airlines would be improved, Tannock said he could not give such an assurance. "We can't be totally accountable for human behaviour."
He dismissed a suggestion that the public should be able to find out which airlines were designated "high risk" by the CAA, saying "commercial matters" would preclude it.
Tannock agreed that he and his board would not fly together on a small carrier that they knew to be "high risk".
"Even people don't fly on large airlines together," he said. "Go back to the 1958 Manchester United crash – what would you have done in that case?"
Jane Bezar, whose brother, Howard Bezar, died in the Air Adventures crash, said the apology and the promise of action had come too late.
"It is three years too late for me. It does not mean much," she said.
"Why did they not take action when they were first told about the problems? If they had done that, my brother would still be alive.
"I think about him every day of my life. It is so hard."
Jim Rosanowski, the father of Andrew Rosanowski, who was killed in the crash, said Tannock's admission of responsibility was a start but did not excuse the CAA's behaviour in court.
"From the experience we had in court, it seemed as though the CAA were there with their many lawyers to cover their backsides," he said.
"What is really wrong is that if the families had not been there, a lot of information for the coroner would never have been revealed.
"It's so easy for Annette King to say, `Now we're going to do this, that and the other'. Why the hell didn't she have people in (court) cross-examining the CAA?"
King said she had confidence in the CAA's board but shied away from giving an opinion on the management's performance, saying it was not the Government's responsibility.
Neither she nor Tannock would criticise the performance of CAA director John Jones, but his wide-ranging powers and independence enshrined in law would be reviewed.
National transport spokesman Maurice Williamson said King had offered "nothing but platitudes" in response to the concerns from the Audit Office and the coroner.
King defended her decision not to sack the CAA board. "I'm about solutions, not symbolic heads on stakes."
07 June 2006
By COLIN ESPINER
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is promising to change its ways after admitting responsibility for the Air Adventures crash near Christchurch that killed eight people.
"Ratbag" airlines will be grounded faster under an action plan agreed to by the Government and the CAA board yesterday – the third anniversary of the day pilot Michael Bannerman flew his Piper Chieftain into the ground in heavy fog just short of Christchurch International Airport in 2003, killing himself and seven Crop and Food managers.
The CAA yesterday expressed sympathy for the families of the crash victims and pledged to leave "no area unturned" in a top-down review of the Crown entity's systems and practices.
CAA chairman Ron Tannock and deputy board chairwoman Hazel Armstrong met Transport Minister Annette King for a grilling over a highly critical report by Christchurch Coroner Richard McElrea that held the CAA partly responsible for the accident.
"One of the things that touched me was when I read in the coroner's report that one member of one of the families said that he hoped the CAA would take note," Tannock said yesterday.
"There will be no area left unturned because that really was a touching paragraph."
He was speaking as families of the victims of the disaster gathered to commemorate the deaths at Crop and Food near Lincoln.
AdvertisementAdvertisementKing did not ask for Tannock's resignation yesterday, and neither was it offered. But she said the Government was not happy with the level of safety in general aviation – the class below major airlines such as Air New Zealand and Qantas.
"Non-compliance is simply not acceptable. It is not sufficient telling people off. Action has to be taken to make them compliant," she said.
King said the CAA had agreed to implement all 31 recommendations of the coroner, including investigating the possibility of independent safety audits of airlines, and changes to the structure of the authority and the statutory independence of its director.
Tannock said he wanted to express his sympathy to the families. The CAA had put aside $2 million to carry out changes, he said.
The CAA had not grounded Air Adventures because it had not stuck to its own "no-compliance, no-fly" rule, Tannock said.
Asked if he took responsibility for the crash, he said: "I wasn't chairman then but I think the CAA has got to face up to that."
Asked to assure the public that the safety record of minor airlines would be improved, Tannock said he could not give such an assurance. "We can't be totally accountable for human behaviour."
He dismissed a suggestion that the public should be able to find out which airlines were designated "high risk" by the CAA, saying "commercial matters" would preclude it.
Tannock agreed that he and his board would not fly together on a small carrier that they knew to be "high risk".
"Even people don't fly on large airlines together," he said. "Go back to the 1958 Manchester United crash – what would you have done in that case?"
Jane Bezar, whose brother, Howard Bezar, died in the Air Adventures crash, said the apology and the promise of action had come too late.
"It is three years too late for me. It does not mean much," she said.
"Why did they not take action when they were first told about the problems? If they had done that, my brother would still be alive.
"I think about him every day of my life. It is so hard."
Jim Rosanowski, the father of Andrew Rosanowski, who was killed in the crash, said Tannock's admission of responsibility was a start but did not excuse the CAA's behaviour in court.
"From the experience we had in court, it seemed as though the CAA were there with their many lawyers to cover their backsides," he said.
"What is really wrong is that if the families had not been there, a lot of information for the coroner would never have been revealed.
"It's so easy for Annette King to say, `Now we're going to do this, that and the other'. Why the hell didn't she have people in (court) cross-examining the CAA?"
King said she had confidence in the CAA's board but shied away from giving an opinion on the management's performance, saying it was not the Government's responsibility.
Neither she nor Tannock would criticise the performance of CAA director John Jones, but his wide-ranging powers and independence enshrined in law would be reviewed.
National transport spokesman Maurice Williamson said King had offered "nothing but platitudes" in response to the concerns from the Audit Office and the coroner.
King defended her decision not to sack the CAA board. "I'm about solutions, not symbolic heads on stakes."
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sasless.
the caa said that they where to blame but no one took the balme themselves and just passed the buck!!!
i totally agree with you in your comments and there should be a few heads roll down th isle on this!!! otherwise who and when will be the next casualty?
the caa said that they where to blame but no one took the balme themselves and just passed the buck!!!
i totally agree with you in your comments and there should be a few heads roll down th isle on this!!! otherwise who and when will be the next casualty?
"Touchy Feel Good Logic" at work!
"King defended her decision not to sack the CAA board. "I'm about solutions, not symbolic heads on stakes."
I have a solution for her.....start a lottery and start putting a family member of the CAA Board onboard each airline deemed unsafe by the Board. They have Two Million Dollars of taxpayer money to spend on the project. Reckon that would provide some emphasis to get them off their chairborne butts?
What do they mean, commerical issues, prevent posting the names of the "RatBags"? That is exactly what will cure the problem. One has no passengers....one goes broke. Problem solved.
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First head for the stick, perhaps!
Minister, CAA chairman refuse to back director
1.00pm Wednesday June 7, 2006
The chairman of the under-pressure Civil Aviation Authority has refused to back its director, the day after Transport Minister Annette King also declined to give her endorsement.
Ms King would not comment yesterday on whether she had confidence in John Jones, who has statutory independence.
And today Chairman Ron Tannock, who is effectively Mr Jones' boss, again refused to express confidence in him during an interview on National Radio today.
He said he would not comment on employment matters. Asked if that meant there were "employment issues" relating to Mr Jones, Mr Tannock refused to comment.
Yesterday Ms King said Mr Jones' powers were one of the things up for review.
"The CAA needs to re-examine the powers and functions of its director, particularly in relation to his powers of delegation," she said.
Mr Tannock said the review would look at whether his independence was in line with other similar statutory positions.
Mr Tannock today shrugged off the criticisms of the aviation industry, which had a "vested interest".
The industry has warned against "simplistic and reactive strategies" after Ms King told the CAA to get tough with small airlines.
"Non-compliance is simply not acceptable. It is not sufficient telling people off. Action has to be taken to make them compliant," Ms King said yesterday.
The Aviation Industry Association (AIA) said the minister and the board "should not be seduced by a simplistic belief that the solution lies in enforcement".
AIA chief executive Irene King said significant safety gains had been achieved during the past three years by focusing on "top of the cliff" preventive measures.
"Safety is a complex issue that does not respond to simplistic and reactive strategies," she said. "It is critical that the minister and the CAA board understand this."
After the meeting with Ms King, Mr Tannock admitted the CAA should have prevented the 2003 Air Adventures crash in which pilot Michael Bannerman and seven Crop and Food Research staff died.
Christchurch Coroner Richard McElrea issued a report last week highly critical of the CAA's policing of the company after it had identified rule breaches but did not enforce compliance.
National's transport spokesman Maurice Williamson said Ms King should have sacked the CAA's entire board.
He said it had failed to act on several critical reviews, and a new board was needed to overhaul the organisation.
There had been speculation Ms King might demand resignations, but she expressed confidence in the board saying a tight focus on implementing recommendations would gain better results than "symbolic heads on stakes".
She has ordered the CAA to give her monthly reports on its progress.
- NZPA
1.00pm Wednesday June 7, 2006
The chairman of the under-pressure Civil Aviation Authority has refused to back its director, the day after Transport Minister Annette King also declined to give her endorsement.
Ms King would not comment yesterday on whether she had confidence in John Jones, who has statutory independence.
And today Chairman Ron Tannock, who is effectively Mr Jones' boss, again refused to express confidence in him during an interview on National Radio today.
He said he would not comment on employment matters. Asked if that meant there were "employment issues" relating to Mr Jones, Mr Tannock refused to comment.
Yesterday Ms King said Mr Jones' powers were one of the things up for review.
"The CAA needs to re-examine the powers and functions of its director, particularly in relation to his powers of delegation," she said.
Mr Tannock said the review would look at whether his independence was in line with other similar statutory positions.
Mr Tannock today shrugged off the criticisms of the aviation industry, which had a "vested interest".
The industry has warned against "simplistic and reactive strategies" after Ms King told the CAA to get tough with small airlines.
"Non-compliance is simply not acceptable. It is not sufficient telling people off. Action has to be taken to make them compliant," Ms King said yesterday.
The Aviation Industry Association (AIA) said the minister and the board "should not be seduced by a simplistic belief that the solution lies in enforcement".
AIA chief executive Irene King said significant safety gains had been achieved during the past three years by focusing on "top of the cliff" preventive measures.
"Safety is a complex issue that does not respond to simplistic and reactive strategies," she said. "It is critical that the minister and the CAA board understand this."
After the meeting with Ms King, Mr Tannock admitted the CAA should have prevented the 2003 Air Adventures crash in which pilot Michael Bannerman and seven Crop and Food Research staff died.
Christchurch Coroner Richard McElrea issued a report last week highly critical of the CAA's policing of the company after it had identified rule breaches but did not enforce compliance.
National's transport spokesman Maurice Williamson said Ms King should have sacked the CAA's entire board.
He said it had failed to act on several critical reviews, and a new board was needed to overhaul the organisation.
There had been speculation Ms King might demand resignations, but she expressed confidence in the board saying a tight focus on implementing recommendations would gain better results than "symbolic heads on stakes".
She has ordered the CAA to give her monthly reports on its progress.
- NZPA
SASless, you missed a step: 'one has no passengers, one spends less on maintenance and training in a bid to save money - resulting in more accidents, then one goes broke'!
