Air New Zealand-owned A320 Crashes

The crash of an Air New Zealand-owned Airbus A320, leased by the German company XL Aviation Germany, crashed off the coast of France on the 27th November. The crash occurred during a routine acceptance test flight following the aircraft’s maintenance in preparation for its “handover” and return to Air New Zealand.

Two German pilots were flying the aircraft at the time and they were accompanied by New Zealander Captain Brian Horrell, three Air New Zealand engineers: Michael Gyles, Noel Marsh and Murray White, as well as a New Zealand CAA safety inspector, Jeremy Cook.

The aircraft crashed into relatively shallow water just a few kilometres from the French coast on final approach for Perpignan Airport.

There have been numerous conflicting reports by “eye witnesses” about what happened, but Pacific Wings will not enter into any speculation about the cause of the crash.

The general news media has made much of the fact of a reported lack of a “mayday” call by the aircraft’s crew.

Pacific Wings notes that if the aircraft was low on final approach, as has been reported, its aircrew would undoubtedly have been following aviation’s golden rule to: “aviate–navigate–communicate”—in that order—and been busy doing the best they could to deal with whatever events befell the aircraft before concerning themselves with radio calls. The crew would have known that their whereabouts were being comprehensively tracked and recorded by air traffic control systems, and a mayday call would have done nothing to assist them to save the aircraft.

Air New Zealand’s CEO, Rob Fyfe, responded promptly to the tragedy with well-considered media comments and asked for people to desist from speculation, which was stressful for the families and colleagues of the victims.

The aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder has been retrieved and its analysis begun, and French divers are in the process of retrieving the flight data recorder. The two recorders should be able to provide the answers as to what happened to the aircraft.

Because it occurred in French territory, the crash will be investigated by French authorities; however, a New Zealand accident investigator is expected to assist as required.

At the time of writing, only two bodies had been recovered from the site and had not yet been identified.

Pacific Wings will update its website with news on the crash as reliable reports come to hand.