John Armstrong: PM should have kept out of cockpit

Yesterday's cockpit stoush between Helen Clark and an Air New Zealand pilot is a storm in a disposable economy-class teacup.

As far as the politics go, the only question is whether the Prime Minister's behaviour was another damaging example of the arrogance many voters now accuse her of displaying.

"Arrogant" was the description another passenger on Flight 405 from Wellington to Christchurch applied to her.

But then Don Brash knows the Prime Minister is vulnerable to that charge. His comment was designed purely to remind voters of that.

Helen Clark knows that the perception she is arrogant is her Achilles heel. She has deliberately gone out of her way in this election campaign to appear anything but.

She had every reason to be furious with the pilot's sarcastic and injudicious remarks about her to passengers on the flight.

He wrongly blamed her for the delay. He rubbished her for trying to charter a private plane to get her to Christchurch because of the delay to the Air NZ flight, rather than relying on the national carrier. She happens to be one of Air NZ's most reliable customers, even if it is the taxpayer who picks up the fares.

She had every right to expect an apology - especially as she had been embarrassed in front of Dr Brash.

But discretion should have got the better of her indignation.

Better that she had laughed off the remark and left the task of complaining to her minions. That is what they are there for.

Better that she stayed out of the cockpit, even though the pilot invited her to go up front for him to apologise in person.

The power her office has in opening doors - even cockpit doors - carries the attendant risk of the Prime Minister looking as if she is pulling rank, even if she does not mean to do so.

Air NZ's reaction - a letter of apology, a phone call from the chief executive and the temporary stand-down of the pilot - may be seen as fitting given the status of her office and the fact that no ordinary passenger would have been singled out for such personal insult.

She argues that she was entitled to be treated with fairness like any other passenger. But would any other passenger have got such an immediate and fawning response from the airline?

Air NZ's reaction looked like overreaction. It did not help the Prime Minister either. It looked as if the airline was bowing and scraping to its majority owner - the Government.

It gave the appearance that in Air NZ economy class, some passengers are more equal than others.