A New Zealand Court ruling has sparked a new furore over the use of cockpit-voice-recorder (CVR) information outside the accident-investigation process, because of the possible use of such information in pending lawsuits against an airline and crew, and in the criminal prosecution of the pilots.
Because of the move, some international pilots have said that they will turn off their CVRs while they are operating their aircraft in New Zealand airspace.
Police have seized from the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission the CVR tape and transcripts from an Ansett New Zealand Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8 crash in 1995. The police are investigating whether manslaughter charges should be brought against the pilots.
Three passengers and a flight attendant were killed and 13 passengers injured when the aircraft struck terrain while the first officer was attempting a manual extension of one of the main landing-gear legs during an instrument-landing approach.
The New Zealand Airline Pilots Association had sought a ruling that the transcript should not be published in the accident report, but this application was refused by the Appeal Court.
The report, published on 4 July, after the Court's decision, substantially blames the flightcrew for the crash, having determined that both pilots were distracted by the landing-gear problem, and had continued the approach while trying to rectify it.
The report also finds that Ansett had failed to ensure that its pilots were aware of a recurring undercarriage problem on the aircraft.
Source: Flight International
