KEY POINTS:
Ron "Chips" Chippindale, air accident investigator. Died aged 74.
Ron Chippindale, a meticulous and methodical investigator of air accidents, built himself an international reputation in his specialised field.
This recognition had its origins in his investigation of the Air New Zealand Mt Erebus DC-10 crash in Antarctica, which claimed 257 lives in 1979.
In 1986 he was asked by South Africa and Mozambique to join an international team examining the cause of a crash which killed the President of Mozambique, Samora Machel.
And in 1993 he was one of five international investigators appointed through a United Nations organisation to investigate a Soviet Air Force fighter's shooting down of a Korean Boeing 747 aircraft which strayed into Soviet air space. The incident, in 1983, killed all 269 people on board.
But the main focus of his career was always local. There is a slightly trite old aviation adage that the pilot is always the first person at the scene of an air crash.
But in New Zealand it was long equally true that there was a good chance that Ron Chippindale, the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents, would only be a few hours behind.
New Zealanders recognise the benefits of aircraft in rescues, transport, farming and tourism. The cost, apart from occasional more significant incidents, can mean a wide variety of air accidents. In 1979, for example, 29 people died in New Zealand air accidents in addition to the Erebus tragedy. Crashes can involve light aircraft, helicopters. microlights and gliders.
Ron Chippindale, who was born in England but came to New Zealand aged 5, had 30 years of service as a pilot and officer in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, including in Malaysia during the emergency there.
During that career he also studied accident investigation. He joined the Ministry of Transport as an air accident inspector in 1974 and took over as chief inspector about a year later.
As an investigator he was meticulous in following proper regulations and procedures. Never from Ron Chippindale a public guess at the cause of an accident before the investigation was finished.
And it aggravated some involved in the Erebus matter that they did not get his report soon enough and that he would not say who got his interim crash report for comment.
He pointed out that in the case of the Air New Zealand Friendship crash into the Manukau Harbour the year before, the report was substantially changed between the interim draft and the final version after submissions by interested parties.
As for the Erebus crash itself he confessed: "It has been hard to establish a definite cause. With a structural failure in the aircraft, it would be quite simple."
Ron Chippindale's report in 1980 found the probable cause was the captain descending to a low altitude when unsure of his position and unable to see the terrain. The Royal Commissioner, Justice Peter Mahon, laid the blame squarely with the airline, although he was later found to have exceeded his terms of reference.
It is often this difference, and the almost oil-and-water relationship of the two, that has dominated, along with disagreements from various quarters about both. But it may be useful now to remember that both Chippindale and Mahon had considerable criticisms of the airline over a wide range of matters.
Chippindale made 17 recommendations. The overall impression created by these is that taking a commercial passenger jet to the Antarctic is no simple or risk-free matter. That no further flights have taken place marks, perhaps, Ron Chippindale's most significant contribution.
In later years, Chippindale took on a similar inspecting role in the Transport Accident Investigation Commission when it took over inspecting air, rail and marine accidents in 1990. With this commission he was investigator-in-charge of 48 air and rail accidents and oversaw 400.
They included the Dash-8 aircraft crash in 1995 when four people died near Palmerston North.
Ron Chippindale died this week after being struck by a car at Porirua while going for an early morning walk. He is survived by his wife, June, and adult children.
