KEY POINTS:
An Air New Zealand training video which re-enacts a near-miss over Samoa has turned up on YouTube.com.
The Sunday Star Times today reported the incident happened on July 29, 2000, and was so unusual that Air New Zealand, in co-operation with Boeing Aircraft, Airbus and Flight Safety Foundation, made a training film on it. The film recently turned up on YouTube, which is owned by Google.
In the incident, an Air New Zealand Boeing 767 with 176 people aboard, including three pilots, was using an instrument landing system (ILS) at Samoa's Faleolo Airport around midnight. The pilots did not realise a ditchdigger had damaged the ILS in Samoa.
They realised there was trouble just 120m above the water.
In the film re-enacting the drama, the co-pilot blurts out "shit, those lights are close", and all three pilots reach for the controls.
Air New Zealand spokeswoman Pamela Wong told the newspaper the YouTube version was abridged and did not include the technical analysis of why the Boeing received incorrect signals.
- NZPA
