CAA questions Taupo Airport's black star

Taupo airport's black star rating - indicating major safety concerns by operators - is not the result of a full risk assessment and is not accurate, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

The black star, the worst possible rating issued by the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA), categorised airport safety at Taupo as "critically deficient".

The federation has imposed 11 special operating procedures for pilots flying into Taupo.

The lack of air traffic control at the airport was the greatest concern, the organisation said.

However, not all local pilots were spoken to as part of the study, CAA director John Jones said today.

"The concern I have is that if you're going to do a risk assessment, you must do a proper one," he told National Radio. "So the black star thing is not necessarily that accurate."

There was no doubt that Taupo airport was a safe environment to operate in, he said.

New Zealand Airline Pilots Association spokesman Glen Kenny described Taupo as the busiest parachute aerodrome in the southern hemisphere.

It was great for Taupo's tourism industry but it had got to the point where commercial pilots were "getting extremely nervous" when flying in and out of Taupo, he said.

"Air traffic control would take away those concerns."

Mr Jones said that when commercial flights were taking off and landing at the airport, all skydiving activities stopped.

This was one of the conditions which skydiving operators had agreed to under a memorandum of understanding with the airport.

However, local aircraft operators have rubbished claims that the airport is unsafe, labelling ALPA's comments as "scaremongering".

The Taupo Airport Users Group, which claims to represent 95 per cent of operators at or into Taupo, said the union was recycling old unsubstantiated claims.

It was "ludicrous to suggest that the pilots and owners of 23 different organisations, all of whom require CAA certificates, would collectively and knowingly operate into dangerous" conditions, said user group president Toby Clark.

John Funnell, who is also president of the Aviation Industry Association, agreed, saying ALPA had not spoken to most local operators, who had no major concerns.

Aviator Neville Smith, who lives on the airport's perimeter, believed Taupo needed air traffic control services immediately.

A flight information service, a limited form of air traffic control, was the minimum that was needed at Taupo but full air traffic control was the ideal, he told National Radio.

Taupo was a busy airport, with commercial flights operating alongside rescue helicopters, top-dressing planes, and skydivers, he said.

There had been many "near misses" at the airport, including a parachutist who landed very close to a helicopter only a couple of weeks ago.

The parachutists were a major user of the airport and really needed to be moved to another site, Mr Smith said.

"Having a skydiving drop-zone on a commercial airfield is bizarre."

He believed the imposition of the "black star" by IFALPA was an appropriate move.

"It's just got to the stage now where something just has to be done," Mr Smith said.

- NZPA