The wreckage of KAL 801 rusts

Air New Zealand’s last major crash was Erebus in 1979 when a DC-10 carrying 257 people slammed into the side of the Antarctic volcano.
Official investigations confirmed that the airline had entered the wrong co-ordinates in the DC-10’s navigational computer.

Since then, the airline has recovered to become one of the 20 largest airlines in the world with a reputation as one of
the safest, but there are those with first-hand experience of Air New Zealand’s operations culture who believe the airline
has begun taking unnecessary risks and has an alleged "profits before people" attitude.

Take the case of Flight NZ2 from Auckland to London on 23 March 1994. An internal Air New Zealand report, leaked to
Investigate, tells a frightening story that its passengers were probably unaware of at the time.

One of the airline’s new 747-400s, ZK-NBT, had just taken off from its stopover in Los Angeles, to continue the final leg
of its journey to London. Suddenly, only 5000 feet off the ground en route to a cruising altitude of 37,000 feet, the pilots found it difficult to "roll out of a turn", and had to apply extra aileron trim to keep the plane level. Additionally, "The
autopilot could not be engaged," notes the internal report.

Searching frantically for answers, a check of onboard computers showed "the right inboard aileron was deflected fully down and the right flight spoilers deployed."

The ailerons, or flaps, are key elements in steering the plane and landing it. An aileron fault is similar to having a loose
wheel on a car. In disbelief, the flight crew sent one of their number back to cattle class to see for themselves whether
they had a problem with the right wing. Sure enough, says the leaked report, the problem "was confirmed by visual
observation".

With up to 380 souls on board – men, women and children – the flight crew had a choice to make. They could either
turn back to Los Angeles or divert to the nearest major airport, or they could continue on to London in a fully-laden
jumbo jet having steering difficulties. Their destination was eight hours away.

"The aircraft had experienced an ongoing spoiler problem which had not been rectified in LAX," comments the official
report somewhat less than reassuringly. "Accordingly the crew initially believed they had a spoiler problem. After some
experimentation, it was determined that by using 1.8 units of aileron trim and 1.5 units of right rudder trim, the autopilot
could be engaged with the spoilers retracted.

"The crew’s initial reaction was to return to LAX, which would have entailed dumping some 80 tonnes of fuel," says the report, without mentioning that the fuel was worth tens of thousands of dollars.

"The problem was discussed with LAX Engineering on VHF. An attempt to contact Maintenance Watch [in New Zealand] on HF was unsuccessful. About an hour later, contact was established with Maintenance Watch who initiallyagreed with the decision to turn back.

"Additional technical information was obtained which suggested that a control linkage failure on the input side of the inboard aileron power control package would bias the control surface to the fully down position.

"Forecast conditions for the flight’s arrival in Gatwick were not ideal, with a strong gusty wind."

So, to recap to this point: an Air New Zealand 747-400 with hundreds of passengers on board develops a serious flight
control system failure after taking off from Los Angeles, leaving the pilots with a choice of whether to carry on to a
destination where rough weather is forecast that could make a landing disastrous, or to turn back to Los Angeles and disrupt the travellers.

"After considering all factors, the Captain elected to continue on to LGW; a decision that was acceptable to
Maintenance Watch."

But not acceptable to at least one Air New Zealand executive – the man who leaked the internal report to Investigate. Our source is scathing:

"The flight crew, and the maintenance personnel, in my view made a decision that put the lives of up to 380 Air New
Zealand passengers at serious risk. They took a gamble they were not entitled to take. Not only would the passengers
most certainly have been killed had the aircraft crashed, but so too were they risking the lives of all the Americans
whose homes and businesses were underneath NZ2’s flight path.

"That plane went past airport after airport where it could have landed safely. I believe Air New Zealand broke American aviation law by not reporting the incident to US flight controllers."

A search of US aviation regulations confirmed there is a requirement to notify.

"Federal regulations require operators to notify the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) immediately of
aviation accidents and certain incidents. An incident is an occurrence other than an accident that affects or could
affect the safety of operations."

And under the heading "Aircraft Accident and Incident Reporting", the NTSB regulations further state:

"Occurrences Requiring Notification – the operator of an aircraft shall immediately, and by the most expeditious means
available, notify the nearest National Transportation Safety Board Field Office when…any of the following listed
incidents occur: (a) Flight control system malfunction or failure…"

So the question is – did Air New Zealand notify US authorities as required by law? And for that matter did the airline notify the Governments of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland or Britain that it was flying through their airspace with a malfunctioning flight control system on a jumbo jet?

Air New Zealand claims it was not required to notify anyone other than New Zealand’s CAA, which it did in due course.

"Air New Zealand was not required by Federal law 49 CFR 830 to notify the US National Transportation Safety Board of
the incident of 23.3.94," said the airline’s group communications manager David Beatson in a prepared statement to Investigate.

"The incident occurred after the aircraft had departed its last port of call in the United States and while it was en route
to London, and did not fall within the criteria for reporting contained in 49 CFR 830.

"The incident was properly reported to the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority. Internal inquiry by the company’s flight
operations management and examination by NZ-CAA found no fault with the procedures followed by the crew."

The New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority is required under international rules to notify the FAA of relevant incidents.
Surprisingly, although the CAA has admitted it knew of the jumbo jet malfunction, it does not have a copy of Air New
Zealand’s internal investigation on file. Nor did it advise US authorities. MORE...