Air NZ crew encouraged test that led to crash - expert

Photo / Supplied

Air New Zealand crew members encouraged the pilots of an Airbus A320 to carry out tests at the last minute before the plane crashed off France's Mediterranean coast, an aviation safety specialist says.

The comments come after French prosecutors announced overnight they would not press charges over the November 27, 2008 crash near Perpignan.

A report prepared for a French judicial inquiry found the Air New Zealand plane lost control and crashed, killing the two German pilots and five New Zealanders on board, as the crew tried to perform a low-speed test "in inappropriate conditions".

The report essentially agreed with the findings of an interim report issued last year by Paris-based Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses (BEA), which found the plane stalled during a low-speed, low-altitude test manoeuvre as it was coming in to land at Perpignan airport.

It said the plane should have been flying at an altitude of 5200 metres in order to carry out the manoeuvre that led to its crash, but was instead at 600m.

The test was not in the flight plan, did not take place with adequate preparation, and was decided on at the last minute, the report said.

It also found faulty sensors essential for the plane's computerised flying system might also be partly to blame.

Aviation safety specialist David Learmount, from the FlightGlobal website, said the interim report laid out the facts but left "loads of questions unanswered".

He said the Air New Zealand crew in the cockpit had encouraged the German pilots to carry out the low-speed test after air traffic controllers denied a request to carry out the test at higher altitude.

"They were thinking about giving it up, but then they decided to carry out these low-speed tests at a much lower altitude," Mr Learmount told Radio New Zealand.

"When they actually carried out this test, they not only carried it out at about a third of the altitude that is advisable to do, they also had a very high workload trying to approach an airport at the time, and they also went to a lower speed than this low-speed test was supposed to let them go to.

"So they really were pushing their luck," Mr Learmount said.

His reading of the report led him to the view that a push to get the job finished contributed to the crash.

"This is an intensely human story, this one -- the vast majority of what happened here was to do with human frustration at not being able to get a job done, trying to get it done at a lower altitude than they should have done, and then getting into trouble."

Air New Zealand said today that it was unable to comment due to a confidentiality agreement.

The airline's chief executive, Rob Fyfe, and the general manager of airline operations and safety, Captain David Morgan, were briefed on the judicial investigation in a confidential meeting in France yesterday.

"Under French law all the parties to that investigation are bound by confidentiality, so we can't make any comment until the final report is completed," spokesman Mark Street told NZPA.

Transport Accident Investigation Commission chief investigator Tim Burfoot said his organisation was involved in the BEA inquiry, but not the judicial inquiry.

The BEA's final report is due to be delivered by the end of the year.

The New Zealanders killed in the crash were Air New Zealand pilot Brian Horrell, 52, Air New Zealand engineers Murray White, 37, Michael Gyles, 49, and Noel Marsh, 35, and Civil Aviation Authority official Jeremy Cook, 58.

The bodies were recovered from the crash scene.

French prosecutor Domnique Alzeari told reporters in Perpignan that his office had no plans to indict anyone in the manslaughter investigation that was opened in the wake of the crash.

The experts' report prepared for prosecutors said the low-speed test had been carried out "in unsuitable conditions, with a manoeuvre carried out in an unprepared manner, which made it all the more perilous".

The faulty sensors might also be partly to blame for the crash, Mr Alzeari said.

Two of the three sensors were not working and thus the excessive pitching "could not be corrected by the electronic brain of the aircraft".

The malfunctioning of the two monitors could be "linked to cleaning operations" on the plane the day before the crash, but Mr Alzeari insisted "the accident is not due to a maintenance or design problem of the aircraft".

There was speculation after the crash that one or more of the plane's sensors might have been painted over when the jet was repainted in Air New Zealand colours.

The plane had gone to France for tests and to be repainted before heading to Germany, from where it was scheduled to leave for New Zealand.

Mr Alzeari noted that families of the victims or other parties had three months in which to request alternative expert opinions on the causes of the crash.

An examining judge and lawyers for various parties involved will now study the experts' report and any further expert opinion that may be submitted.

Built in 2005, the plane had been leased to German charter firm XL Airways since 2006.

It had been undergoing servicing at EAS Industries in Perpignan and had been flying test circuits before it crashed.

- NZPA