Too low, too slow - Air NZ crash transcripts

The tail section of the Airbus A320 is seen floating in the Mediterranean sea. Photo / AP

The Air New Zealand Airbus A320 that plunged into the sea, killing seven people, stalled and crashed during a low-speed manoeuvre at a dangerously low altitude.

Transcripts of what happened in the final few minutes of the doomed test flight - revealed in an interim report released yesterday - show that the unnamed German captain was reluctant to make the manoeuvre.

"I think we will have to do the slow flight probably later," he told the New Zealand pilot who was on board observing the test flight on November 17.

"Or we do it on the way to Frankfurt or I even skip it."

During the next three minutes the plane prepared for a touch-and-go landing at Perpignan Airport in southern France and passed under a cloud layer before the captain turned the autopilot off and asked the New Zealand pilot what he wanted to do.

It is not clear from the interim report what conversations the pilots had during those three minutes, but seconds later the plane's speed dropped.

Air NZ chief executive Rob Fyfe said this indicated the pilots had decided to make the low-speed manoeuvre, and were doing it at a very low altitude.

The manoeuvre activated the plane's stall-warning system several times, and less than two minutes later the Airbus crashed into the sea, killing the two German pilots and five New Zealanders on board.

Mr Fyfe wants people to wait for the full report before deciding what caused the crash, but others have been quick to suggest the low-speed manoeuvre was to blame.

Tommy McFall, a former airline pilot and retired accident investigator for the American National Transportation Safety Board, told the Herald the manoeuvre was unjustified and risky.

"I find it unusual they were doing this type of thing in this environment," he said.

"It is surprising that professional crews would even try that.

"These guys were on a non-revenue flight doing stuff that made no sense - they got very slow, they were very low, they were configured for landing, there was just a very risky manoeuvre.

" I don't think you will ever find in writing that it is OK to do that on any type of transport category flight."

Mr Fyfe said it was standard for a low-speed test to be done on this kind of flight, but it should have been done at a higher altitude.