CAA director defends authority over Air Adventures crash

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) director John Jones today defended the authority which came under fire during a inquest into the Air Adventures plane crash.

An Air Adventures Piper Chieftain, carrying nine Crop and Food Research employees and pilot Michael Bannerman, ploughed into farmland 2km short of Christchurch Airport on June 6 last year. Only two of the 10 people on board survived.

Questions were raised at the inquest over the safety record of Mr Bannerman and the CAA's handling of complaints against him.

Mr Jones told National Radio today that there had essentially been two hearings -- "the coroner's hearing and then the other hearing by some sensational comments that were mostly answered in the court by our people".

He said the authority had been open about what was happening.

"That's how a quality system improves -- it improves by being open, people being upfront -- and all my staff have done that.

"And if the coroner comes up with some recommendations we'll look at them and probably introduce them."

The coroner heard criticism about record keeping and information not always being put on electronic database and followed through.

"We have a huge database of information -- safety information, analytical information, risk information, all those things -- and then we also have a very good document management system," Mr Jones said.

"But if the information isn't put into that system we can't get it out.

"Now maybe we have to smarten our processes up there and that will be something that may come out, in which case we'll certainly do it and again we'll improve our quality systems."

Mr Jones said in the Air Adventures case all but one of the incidents reported to the authority were looked into and dealt with.

The authority dealt with about 4000 incidents a year and most of these were investigated in some form or other, he said.

"As far as our own systems go, we do our own internal auditing and we also have several other external audits come through," he said.

The authority's systems changed as a result of those audits, the same way they would if recommendations came out of the coroner's hearing.

"If appropriate recommendations come through we'll look at them and if our system needs upgrading or changing we certainly will do that. That's how a quality system works, it continuously improves."

The inquest concluded last night and a written decision is expected to be released later next year.

- NZPA