A320 Accident

Air New Zealand advises against drawing premature conclusions about the cause of the A320 accident off the coast of France last year following today’s interim report from the Bureau d’Enquetês et d’Analyses (BEA).

Chief Executive Officer Rob Fyfe says the report into the XL Airways operated flight only partially outlines certain aspects of what occurred during the flight and not why the accident occurred.

“There is a combination of failures that will contribute to the cause of any accident. The BEA report provides a small insight into the failure of the number one and two stall warning vanes on the aircraft at 32,000 ft (as shown in Appendix 1, page 33 of the report) as well as selected information about activity in the cockpit,” says Mr Fyfe.

“We expect the full report, which may not be completed for some time, to have detailed analysis of all factors that contributed to this tragic accident, so that any lessons learned can be shared across the industry.”

For the pre-delivery acceptance flight, XL Airways and Air New Zealand had agreed on a series of in-flight checks based on an Airbus programme for flights intended for the delivery of new aircraft to a client.

“In reading the report, none of what occurred during this pre-delivery acceptance flight gives us any concern for the normal commercial operation of the A320 fleet which is an integral part of our operations and indeed for many airlines around the world,” says Mr Fyfe.

“Certainly I believe that Air New Zealand and its experts should be allowed to contribute their insights and knowledge into the BEA investigation, a fact I will be raising again with the BEA and New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) as well as New Zealand Transport Minister Steven Joyce later this morning.

“It disappoints me the BEA chose to release their report to media, under embargo, half a day before the report was made available to Air New Zealand and the families who lost their loved ones.”