Civil Aviation denies failing to investigate crash pilot

The Civil Aviation Authority is refusing to admit mistakes in its failure to investigate alleged breaches of CAA rules by Air Adventures pilot Michael Bannerman.

Investigation procedures at the aviation regulator have been under scrutiny this week as a coroner's inquest into the deaths of seven Crop and Food managers and pilot Mr Bannerman continues.

Crop and Food employees Howard Bezar, 55, Katherine Carman, 35, Alistair Clough, 37, Richard Finch, 41, Desma Hogg, 41, Andrew Rosanowski, 37, and Margaret Viles, 53 and Mr Bannerman, 52, died when the Air Adventures Piper Chieftain crashed into farmland 2km short of Christchurch Airport on June 6 last year.

The court heard yesterday that the CAA received written allegations about Mr Bannerman's safety record from a former pilot in May 2001. The pilot, whose name is suppressed because he wrote to the CAA on the condition of anonymity, told the regulator Air Adventures had no safety culture and Mr Bannerman continually suffered from "get-home-itis".

Commercial pressures often forced Mr Bannerman to make poor safety decisions, he said.

The allegations also listed incidents where the pilot believed Mr Bannerman had breached CAA rules. These included:

* Mr Bannerman flying under visual flight rules (VFR) into cloud looking for a hole to descend and eventually turning back and arriving at an alternative destination with no fuel.

* Overloading a passenger flight to Milford Sound.

* Flying a single-engine plane with fare-paying passengers in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) - against CAA regulations.

* Flying in a dual pilot situation where one of the pilots was not rated to fly under instrument flight rules (IFR) - against CAA regulations.

The written allegations were sent to the CAA's enforcement unit who, without investigating any of the allegations further by follow-up, decided no rules had been broken and dismissed any possibility of taking action against Mr Bannerman.

Instead, after having the letter just three days, the enforcement unit passed it on to the CAA's General Aviation unit.

Mervyn Falconer, general manager of the fixed wing group in General Aviation, told the court he followed up the email by talking to the complainant and later to Mr Bannerman.

Mr Bannerman denied all the allegations and assured Mr Falconer he did not condone rule-breaking.

Mr Falconer took his word and gave Mr Bannerman a stern warning that rules must be obeyed.

He told Mr Bannerman Air Adventures would be closely watched.

Mr Falconer was repeatedly questioned on whether the CAA could have done more or, in hindsight, would use the information contained in the written allegations differently. He refused to admit the CAA made a mistake by not investigating the complaint further.

He said complaints were always dealt with on a case-by-case basis and that system continued.

Jonathan Eaton, the lawyer representing most of the families involved in the crash, accused Mr Falconer and the CAA of being reluctant to admit "systems failed horribly".

Mr Falconer said CAA had done all it could with the hard-core facts it was presented with. It had no way of enforcing rules if allegations were based on second-hand information.

- NZPA