On 30 May 2006 the Coroner released a report into the crash of Air Adventures ZK-NCA. On 17 June 2005, the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General had released a related report into the Civil Aviation Authority's certification and surveillance functions. The Minister of Transport has stated publicly that progress against these reports will be updated monthly and reported on both the CAA’s and the Ministry's websites until June 2007 and then quarterly.
The Ministry has reported to the Minister of Transport on all the Coroner's recommendations made to the Minister. The CAA has published its report on the Coroner's recommendations made to the CAA.
Quarterly Reporting
Recommendation 544
Recommendation 565
Recommendation 575
Final paper on all the recommendations to the Ministry
Here is the quarterly report for December 2007.
The Ministry welcomes comments on the following papers. Please email: aviationsafety@transport.govt.nz.
This paper addresses recommendation 544 of the Coroner’s report. The recommendation made to the Minister of Transport states:
"That the Minister of Transport consider some form of independent assessment of the CAA Act in relation to the General Aviation sector and its reliance on industry responsibility and self-regulation."
The Minister of Transport has approved publication of this paper, prepard by the Ministry of Transport. It concludes that the Civil Aviation Act provides a comprehensive legal framework to regulate the general aviation sector and an independent assessment of the Civil Aviation Act is not considered necessary.
This paper addresses recommendation 565 of the Coroner’s report. The recommendation made to the Minister of Transport states:
‘That the Minister of Transport give consideration to amending section 17 of the Civil Aviation Act to empower the Director of Civil Aviation to immediately suspend a General Aviation Air Operator Certificate in the case of seriously adverse findings against the operator affecting the safety of air operations, whether such findings are determined at audit or otherwise."
The Ministry of Transport has prepared a memorandum on this recommendation. It concludes that Section 17 of the Act provides the Director with the ability to suspend immediately an operator against whom the Director had made seriously adverse findings affecting safety. This is because the section allows immediate suspension and any case of “seriously adverse findings affecting safety” is highly likely to fall under section 17(1)(a)(b) and invariably under 17(1)(d). That being the case an amendment is not required as the Director already has the legal ability to take the action sought by the Coroner.
This paper addresses recommendation 575 of the Coroner’s report. The recommendation made to the Minister of Transport states:
‘That consideration be given to the feasibility and desirability of establishing an independent confidential air safety incident reporting system in New Zealand taking account of previous difficulties with the system known as Icarus, and/or an office of aviation ombudsman.’
The Minister of Transport approved the paper, prepared by the Ministry of Transport, and asked the Ministry to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of establishing a confidential incident reporting scheme in New Zealand, including cost, funding options, administration and staffing issues.
This paper sets out the advice to the Minister on the cost benefit analysis. It recommends that a system not be established at this time.
This paper contains the cost benefit analysis.