An Air NZ pilot believes the national aviation watchdog isn’t taking a “loss of separation” incident between two planes in Queenstown seriously enough. 

The 737 captain, who can’t be named because of a media ban in his contract, says the Civil Aviation Authority should have made recommendations fol-lowing an air traffic control episode at Queenstown Airport on March 2 last year. 

CAA should be recommending “what needs to be done to mitigate the threat” of it re-occurring, the captain says.
“This is of real concern, given the increased number of flights that will be scheduled to operate into Queenstown.” 

The pilot’s concerns follow a Mountain Scene story last week, in which sacked Queenstown air traffic controller Pamela Adams claimed rookie controllers were causing an increasing number of safety incidents. 

Adams was found to be unjustifiably dismissed after she confronted a less-experienced colleague over potential loss of separation – or required clearance – between an Air NZ turbo-prop on a scheduled flight to Christchurch and a private, similar-sized aircraft flying to Manapouri. 

Subsequent investigations by CAA and her then-employer Airways Corporation found there was no loss of separation. However, a CAA investigator noted the incident should have been reported to CAA. 

The 737 captain, echoing Adams’s warning, says the Queenstown tower’s not alone when it comes to concerns about air traffic controllers – “given what I know of the under-resourcing and over-work in many of the control towers around the country”. 

“Human factors are an important element to consider in terms of any given failing of a controller and it seems all too convenient to try to shift the problem on to the individual seemingly responsible – but has it really dealt with the root cause?” 

The pilot puts some of the blame on passenger demand for “cheaper and cheaper flights”. 

“One has to ask what is the real cost of cheaper airfares given that the airlines have to pay Airways Corp for the provision of air traffic control services, so they naturally try to pay them as little as possible. 

“The economic drivers are not necessarily complimentary to safer skies.”