Garth George: This pilot should keep his feet firmly on the ground

The Boeing 767 is on final approach to Auckland International Airport (or Sydney or Kai Tak or Narita), the most critical time in any flight.

The 157-tonne, 50m long and 15m high airliner, carrying some 270 passengers and crew, is within seconds of touchdown when the pilot in command faints.

The co-pilot tears his hands off the power levers and makes a grab for the control yoke.

The outcome of this little scenario (whether the first officer was able successfully to complete the controlled crash which the return to earth of a jumbo aircraft always is - or not) I leave to your imagination.

Which is something that Wellington District Court judge Peter Butler obviously doesn't have. If he had, he would never have overturned a decision of the Civil Aviation Authority to ground former Air New Zealand Boeing 767 captain Geoff Paterson, 52, who is prone to fainting.

Captain Paterson was grounded in 2002 after he fainted during a work layover in Tahiti. He has a condition called neurocardiogenic (or vasovagal) syncope, otherwise known as the common faint.

Judge Butler was told the condition was thought to have been the cause of the traditional "drawing room swoon".

Captain Paterson was allowed to fly after the first two faints in 1990 and 1995, provided he was part of a crew with another qualified pilot. But his medical certificate was revoked after the third fainting episode in 2002. Last week, after an examination in an attempt to get a medical certificate to resume his job as pilot in command of a 767, he appealed against the CAA director's decision not to accept an independent reviewer's recommendation that he should receive a medical certificate provided he passed a medical examination and flew with other pilots.

Judge Butler allowed the appeal and reversed the director's decision.

Which really makes me wonder, particularly since every airline pilot has to pass a medical examination (every six months), and every airline pilot flies with other pilots. Those are not conditions, they are merely the status quo.

I had to read this story in the Herald on Tuesday twice, just to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. And when I had I rechecked the date on the front page to make sure it wasn't April 1.

A year or so ago a close relative suffered what she called a "temporary absence" while sitting in her easy chair reading a book. She was out of it for a few seconds. When this happened a second time she consulted her GP and was referred to several specialists, including a neurologist.

None could find anything wrong but the neurologist suggested to the GP that my relative should not drive a car for at least a year. When she demurred, the GP made it perfectly plain that if she didn't comply, the authorities would be notified and her licence would be revoked.
So she didn't drive for a year - not even down the road to the dairy - even though she had no more "absences".

Had she had one or two more, the doctors said, she would not have been permitted to resume driving, even alone.

Believe it or not, Captain Paterson says he has had nothing but support from fellow pilots and says no one is reluctant to fly with him.

"Every single pilot I have spoken to has shook my hand and said, 'thank goodness justice prevailed'. It's been a long time coming."

Authorities, he said, could never guarantee zero risk for crew, so pilot incapacitation training played a large part in preparing to fly. "For me it is a victory for common sense."

Try telling that to the thousands of New Zealanders who, in good faith and believing that Air New Zealand has a first-rate safety record, fly all over the world with the national carrier day in and day out.

The only part of the Herald's story of the saga of the swooning airline pilot that made any sense is that the CAA is looking at Judge Butler's decision and an appeal is likely.

It had better be more than likely. Because if an appeal isn't successful - as it surely must be - every passenger booked to fly on an Air New Zealand big jet will be asking the name of the pilot before they take their seats.

* The Easter road toll suggests once again that the road safety messages being peddled profitably by the police and others are not reaching those who need to see and hear them, and in any case only the symptoms that bring carnage to our roads are being addressed, not the causes.

Until we have comprehensive driver education courses in our high schools, as they have had in the United States for 50 years and more, and until we increase the age at which a licence can be obtained to at least 18, road safety campaigns will fail.

The main killers are not speed and alcohol - there will always be those who put the foot down or drink and drive, but they are a tiny minority - the deadliest things are driver incompetence and inattention.

These are expensive and politically unpopular faults to fix, but until they are fixed the road toll will continue to bring tragedy and suffering to thousands.