TVNZ air crash report criticised

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has upheld a complaint that TVNZ's current affairs programme Sunday aired an unbalanced report into a 1998 air crash.

The programme, which screened on June 20 this year, reviewed the crash of SilkAir flight from the perspective of Derek Ward, the father of the New Zealand co-pilot who died in the crash.

Mr Ward contended that the crash was caused by the deliberate action of the pilot. The initial investigation was unable to determine a cause.

Mr Ward expressed the view that Singapore Airlines, owner of SilkAir, did not want the truth revealed.

A number of experts were interviewed who agreed that the official investigation was unsatisfactory and supported Mr Ward's conclusions.

The viewer who complained, Ong Su-Wuen, said the item was unbalanced in that it did not accept that there was any other cause for the crash, other than that the pilot deliberately crashed the plane.

He referred to court action being taken in the United States against aircraft makers Boeing alleging a mechanical cause for the accident.

TVNZ maintained the item was built around the first and only visit by Mr Ward to the memorial at the crash site and did not purport to be an examination of all the theories surrounding the SilkAir crash.

Mr Ward's views were endorsed by "significant figures" in the aviation industry, TVNZ said.

However, the authority did not accept TVNZ's argument. "The malfunction theory was obviously of sufficient validity for a court to accept it," chairwoman Joanne Morris said in her findings.

Upholding the complaint, she said the alternative malfunction theory should have been mentioned in the item.

No action is to be taken against TVNZ over the breach because it was not of "sufficient seriousness".

- NZPA