Auckland floods: Airlines ‘breathing through a straw’ say pilots

Auckland Airport was closed after flooding on Friday night. Photo / Pamela Mills, Twitter

A pilots’ union has asked as many members as possible to make themselves available to help clear the backlog of passengers stranded following flooding at Auckland Airport.

The NZ Air Line Pilots’ Association is also calling for a reporting system on runway surface conditions used overseas to be adopted by regulators here.

An accident where runway lights were knocked out after a landing at Auckland Airport on Friday was part of cascading events, including the flooding of the international terminal, which resulted in flights being suspended and thousands of passengers stranded.

Association president Andrew Ridling said conditions on Friday were “very challenging” with visibility down to 1000m and rainfall few pilots had seen before.

‘‘I take my hat off to the guys who were flying on Friday, they did a really good job to keep it going.’'

Airlines are now scrambling to recover schedules and Ridling said they were doing a good job, in the circumstances.

‘’We’ve asked our pilots to be flexible ... if anyone’s available to make sure they can help out because there’s passengers stranded all around the world,’’ he said.

‘’It’s been major for the airlines - they’re breathing through a straw.’’

On Friday and Saturday inbound international flights were suspended and airlines diverted aircraft en route.

‘‘There was a not alot that they could do. They just needed to park airplanes because there was no point in trying to bring them to Auckland – it would make it worse.’’

The flood emergency came as the aviation system was stretched to the limit by the quicker than expected recovery from the pandemic and a desparate shortage of staff and aircraft.

‘’The recovery from where we’ve come from out of Covid has left a lot of holes. We’ve just got to make sure we just keep those safety levels up where they should be and have the right people doing the right jobs,’’ he said.

Ridling said the flooding had raised issues around who closes airports and emphasised the need for a system that would help assess the impact of surface water on runways.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation had developed uniform standards called the Global Reporting Format (GRF) for runway surface conditions.

The system mitigates the risk of runway excursions by enabling a harmonised assessment and reporting of runway surface conditions and an improved flight crew assessment of take-off and landing performance.

Ridling said it was used overseas but hadn’t been implemented here.

It could late next year before it is introduced, regulator the Civil Aviation Authority says.

‘‘GRF is in the process of being implemented in New Zealand and we are collaborating with the industry on this implementation. We anticipate implementation to be complete no later than November 2024.,’' a spokesperson said and added not all ICAO member states have implemented GRF.

The country’s accident investigator has also clarified comments after the runway lights incident.

NZALPA took issue with comments made by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission chief investigator of accidents, Naveen Kozhuppakalam, about the Air New Zealand B777 incident during Friday night’s extreme weather event.

The conclusion that the pilot “lost control” as the flight landed was premature, said Ridling.

A TAIC spokesman said that in putting out a media release the incident was incorrectly described as the pilot losing directional control of the aircraft.

‘’Our website was amended to bring the wording in line with the opening letter as soon as this discrepancy was brought to our attention,’’ he said.

TAIC said it investigated all aspects of an accident and ‘’keeps an open mind’' while it goes through the process.

‘‘We don’t seek to ascribe blame and we exist to determine the circumstances and causes of accidents and incidents with a view to avoiding similar occurences in the future,’' the spokesman said.

‘’We acknowledge the concerns of NZALPA and they can be assured that as always the investigation will be in accordance with International safety investigation standards.’’