Legal Archives

Discredited and distrusted: It is time to clip some senior wings at the CAA

November 29, 2021

So far, there has been little sign of anyone in New Zealand General Aviation losing sleep over the Civil Aviation Bill. But it will change the Civil Aviation Act, which governs everyone involved in flight here, and submissions close one minute before midnight on December 2. So, for anyone genuinely interested in changing the status quo, it may be time to burn the midnight …

How confirmation bias at the CAA created a pilot’s five-year nightmare

November 9, 2021

When what looks like a whistle-blower warns our CAA that an airline captain is mentally unstable and could be a suicide-murder risk, alarm bells ring – very loudly. Particularly when the claim, in April 2016, comes soon after pilot Andreas Lubitz flew a Germanwings Airbus A320 with 144 passengers and six crew to oblivion on a mountainside in the French Alps, on 24 March …

The old guard said: You toe our line. The new CAA leaders prefer to dip toes in the water

July 25, 2020

In any organisation, the first few months for a new manager can be tricky. On one hand, you must establish a rapport with your team and the stakeholders. You have to create open communication and be accepted as genuine. On the other, you’ve been appointed for a good reason. That reason may be unsettling for some; you are the new broom, here to sweep …

It’s officially true: the CAA is toxic. But will it get a detox?

June 14, 2020

Cast your mind back to 2018 and you may recall the Saga of the CAA Client Satisfaction Survey and how the Authority’s leading lights rubbished the results when the GAA ran a customer survey after the CAA refused to do the job. The Director, Graeme Harris, rejected what GAA supporters said about his Authority after our survey of opinion in 2018 and 2019. His …

$300,000 or more down the drain? A cost analysis of two worthless CAA prosecutions

October 14, 2019

Two prosecutions, in both of which the CAA failed to achieve a criminal conviction, have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, we can reveal. We have already reported the more-than-two-year ordeal of a pilot relentlessly pursued by the authority, all the way to a failed CAA appeal. But soon after we posted that report, we learned about another CAA prosecution with similar circumstances. Once …

Two years of private grief, more disgrace for the CAA, massive expense – for what? Nothing.

September 10, 2019

The case has finally closed on an episode that brought two years of misery to a pilot and piled more shame on a misguided Civil Aviation Authority. The pilot was charged with, and subsequently pleaded guilty to, careless operation of an aircraft. (Among the prosecution evidence in what we’ll call the Go-Pro Case was video footage taken in the cockpit. GAA supporters raised more …

Why attempts to restrict New Zealand airspace for UAs must be blocked

November 20, 2018

Many folk in and around Alexandra (pop. 5440) were up in arms when a Christchurch-based firm called Skybase sought to restrict more than 500 sq km of Central Otago airspace in which to test unmanned aircraft. We do not know how many untested UAs are owned by Skybase in New Zealand, but we do know that Skybase is backed by US interests. We know …

Ice cold in Alex: UA operators get a frosty reception – and the threat of court action

October 22, 2018

Since we last looked at the Alexandra Restricted Airspace application for UAV testing, there have been some developments. Following a public consultation meeting held on 18 September, and requests from users, the closing date for submissions has been extended to 5 pm on Wednesday 07 Nov. The CAA has refused to release details of any risk assessments and Alexandra aviators are now threatening legal …

Changes: Why are we waiting? Because we’re at the bottom of the pile

July 28, 2018

The GAA has had a meeting in Wellington with CAA Board Chairman Nigel Gould and Director Graeme Harris. One of the topics was the length of time it takes to achieve a rule change. On his whiteboard, the Director drew a triangle which had the airline sector at the top, commercial GA in the middle and recreational GA at the base. He explained that …

The cockpit video and audio recording case

July 16, 2018

The result of the hearing by District Court Judge Cunningham has been published. Her decision has gone against the case presented by counsel for the pilot involved. The issue for the Court in the application for a pre-trial hearing was about the status of the evidence presented. The prosecution, with the assistance of the police, had compiled a DVD which included footage from the …

Category: Legal