Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Jetstar plane swerved off the runway after landing at Christchurch because the pilot accidentally put the thrust lever on to full power causing the plane to accelerate, investigators say.

Passengers aboard the Airbus A320 plane travelling from Auckland reported a bumpy and “frightening” landing on 31 May 2024, although no one was injured.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC)’s report out on Thursday put the accident down to pilot error but also a lack of proper training from Jetstar.

Chief investigator of accidents Louise Cook said during the flight one of the plane’s three hydraulic systems failed and the plane lost the ability to use its nosewheel to steer.

The crew followed standard operating procedures and continued with the flight to land at Christchurch where they planned to use differential braking to steer off the runway onto the rapid exit taxiway.

The landing went well until the crew lost directional control and the plane veered off the taxiway, hit an aerodrome signboard and continued across the grass until stopping back on the main runway, Cook said.

“The crew did a great job of landing the plane, had they stopped and then been towed off there would’ve been no issues,” she said.

“But they were trying to do the right thing and clear the runway so that other planes could use it, and so used the rapid exit way, and as they went to do that that’s when the pilot thought they were putting it into idle but in fact put the thrust lever forward into climb and full power.”

Cook said the pilots were likely so focused on making that exit they missed important cues that the position of the thrust levers was not as intended.

“On the face of it, this option appeared safe and achievable to the pilots because Airbus documentation, repeated in Jetstar’s Flight Crew Techniques Manual, provided no guidance on use of differential braking specifically for steering off the runway via a rapid exit,” she said.

A Jetstar spokesperson said the airline had since changed its guidance to flight crews.

“We’ve worked closely with the regulator and Airbus to fully understand what occurred and have strengthened our procedures to help prevent a recurrence and ensure the ongoing safety and resilience of our operations,” Jetstar said.

TAIC said Airbus had accepted the commission’s recommendation to revise aircraft manuals and instructor guidance to mitigate the risk that other pilots might move the thrust levers while on the ground to an unintended position.

Airbus planed to do this in April and May 2026, it said.

“This accident also highlights the importance of maintenance engineers conducting a detailed inspection of new parts for potential damage before installation. In this case, a titanium hydraulic pipe was just 1mm out of shape – slightly oval, not round. It is very likely the deformity occurred when the pipe’s packaging was damaged in transit between Airbus warehouses in 2015,” the commission said.

“The damage was not detected before or after installation and failed after 18 months of service.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A woman who works overnight shifts as a cleaner at Auckland Airport says she is feeling the effects of surging petrol prices.

The Finance Minister said she was looking at targeted, temporary support for some households if the Middle East conflict worsened.

Nicola Willis said the help could be available, for example, to a cleaner needing to drive to work early in the morning when there was no public transport.

E tū union member Ayesha Paki had a roughly 30-minute drive, six days a week, to her job at Auckland Airport.

“Everything is expensive and now the petrol has affected all of us cleaners and low pay workers. We are so worried,” she said.

Paki, who worked 10pm to 6am shifts, said it was a very tough time.

“Petrol is going up everytime I go in my car,” she said.

“We are renting and we have to pay the bills, electricity, put the food on the table, it’s hard for us.”

Paki said any government support would be appreciated.

“If our wages go up it will be easier for us. That’s why we fight for our Fair Pay agreement but then they scrapped it, and we cleaners are suffering and struggling.”

On Monday, Willis said the government was “anticipating, and to the extent possible mitigating the impact on the New Zealand economy, including what could potentially be acute cost of living pressures for some households”.

“From the government’s point of view, we need to ensure that any support we provide to households is temporary, is targeted and is timely,” she said.

Willis said official advice was that reducing fuel excise would “send the wrong signal” and not be sufficiently targeted.

Willis said her household would not need as much help financially as others, using the example of a South Auckland airport cleaner who could not take the bus to work.

“We need to make sure that we have in mind those New Zealanders who face the most acute cost of living pressures rather than having blanket responses which tie up a lot of others.”

She would not give a price petrol would have to reach at the pump before the government would take action, saying prices had been higher in the past.

“I am working with the Treasury and we will have a range of options,” she said, which would be discussed with Cabinet. She said whatever the government did would have to be prudent and not contribute to inflation.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hopes of retaining an 18-hole golf course in Takapuna have been sunk – but 12 holes could still be on the cards for the golfers.

Auckland Council is turning half of the existing 18-hole golf course at AF Thomas Park into a floodwater catchment, aimed at mitigating the city’s increasing flood risks.

The Wairau area on Auckland’s North Shore has been hit hard by floods, and the council has said its decision was about “saving lives, protecting homes and businesses, and strengthening the city against flood risk”.

But thousands of people have signed a petition to keep the 18 holes on the course – with supporters including Hall of Fame golfer Dame Lydia Ko.

The council decided last year to push ahead with plans to reduce the course to nine holes.

But Takapuna Golf Course is taking another swing at the proposal, and has come up with a plan to give the council the area it needs for the wetland, while squeezing 12 holes into the remaining space.

Takapuna Golf Course head greens keeper Stephen Dowd told Checkpoint the three extra holes would make a big difference, and followed moves in Europe and the United States towards 12-hole golf.

“It just gives us a more meaningful round of golf. We can play two sixes, which you can associate with playing two nines, and it can be more like a normal round of golf, rather than just playing nine holes, and it lets us operate pretty much as we are now. We can sell an extra tee-off time in the morning for a couple of hours, so people can play the other six.

“It just lets us operate and then we can continue to provide more affordable golf to as many Kiwis as we can, and get more people on the course.”

Dowd said the golf course had not yet seen the council’s full proposal, but they were confident they could make the 12 holes work.

“We just have to come up with our own plan. They’ve seen our plan and we believe some of them actually like it.

“We anticipate the wetland will take up around a third of the course. So we need about 22 hectares of the rest of the course.”

He said they were working with a designer and were trying to accommodate other peoples wishes that they wanted extra recreation on the course.

“If we want more land, it won’t be very much more, only two or three more hectares.”

The local community board will discuss the new proposal at a meeting next week.

While the golfers had fought to keep the 18 holes, Dowd said they had accepted that the course needed to change.

“Obviously, the flooding was a massive issue and that was last year’s fight, we made the decision last year that we needed to start working with the council.

“And we think this is a good plan that accomplishes all their goals, while leaving meaningful golf on Takapuna Golf Course for our 100,00 users we get every year.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

• Ministry of Education pauses reviews and changes to rural school bus routes.
• Officials to review policy and consult with schools and communities.
• Changes already brought in won’t be reversed.

Rural families worried about whether their children are still eligible for government-funded buses to school can for now breathe a sigh of relief.

The Ministry of Education confirmed it’s pushed pause on reviews into compliance with rules such as attending the closest high school while it reviews its transport assistance policy.

It’s a welcome decision for regions where changes were due to soon take hold, but has left those already affected feeling frustrated.

Grateful for pause

Tairāwhiti farmer Toby Williams’ two sons attend Gisborne Boys’ High School.

Changes to take effect in the Gisborne region from the second term of the school year are now on hold.

But before the ministry backdown this week, Williams was worried about how his boys and dozens of other teens in the area would get to school from next term. They were ruled ineligible for ministry-funded services to Boys’ High.

“We’re really grateful to the ministry for pausing these changes for us and giving us that bit of extra time to work with them and the schools and the transport providers to be able to provide some routes that work for the community, but also work in terms of being cost efficient and affordable for the government.”

Williams’ 17-year-old son Tristin was stressed about passing his driving test, in case he had to get himself and younger brother Jackson into town, 30 minutes away, each day for class.

Williams wonders why rules most people didn’t know about were suddenly being enforced after being overlooked for so long.

“This bus has run for 40 years and must have been through multiple iterations of reviews. There were 50 kids on the bus.

“It was funny how the bus suddenly needed such drastic changes in our region. Parents were left a bit dumbfounded by the whole thing.”

Changes won’t be reversed

The ministry reviewed more than 250 routes, out of about 1400, throughout the country.

Although it’s paused making new changes, it won’t undo those it’s already made, it confirmed to RNZ on Wednesday.

In Manawatū, Nikita Walker helped organise a user-pays service for children from the towns of Rongotea and Tangimoana to get to school in Palmerston North.

The ministry said a school in Foxton is closer, so it will only put on buses there despite previously funding students on the Palmerston North service for decades.

“It’s just hugely disappointing. There are a lot of us who are really in hard times, financially, and we’re all struggling to be able to afford these term passes.”

The user-pays service cost more than $500 a term, she said.

“There has been a drop off in numbers due to the prices. Some people were able to just manage to get by with doing a few concession cards to get on the bus, however, long term it’s just not doable.”

Becs Barr’s petrol bill has tripled to more than $300 a week this year now she has to drive her son Murphy to and from school in Palmerston North from their Horowhenua home.

She’s also unhappy changes already implemented will stay.

“I find that quite bizarre. It should be the same for everybody. All our children should get to school.

“It seems crazy that there are decisions they’ve made for term two that they’re going to put a hold on, but they can’t reverse decisions for term one.”

Thorough review needed – principal

The ministry has said reviews were a routine, ongoing part of its work, but now said it was reviewing its transport assistance policy so changes were “lasting and reflect up to date policy settings”.

“Education minister Erica Stanford has been discussing current transport settings with the ministry for some time and, based on our advice, agreed last week to initiate a policy review,” said James Meffan, the ministry’s group manager for school transport.

“We’ll work with schools, communities and transport providers, and we’ll keep people updated on next steps.”

Gisborne Boys’ High School headmaster Tom Cairns said the ministry needed to come up with something that worked in the regions.

“I think the policy certainly needs to be reviewed and I think it needs to be far more comprehensive than the current review, which was, ‘We’ve got a policy from 1908. We have to enact it.’

“There needs to be some community consultation for it to be purposeful and there was none of that.”

He said schools were just told what was happening for the now-paused changes to the Gisborne region, with no chance to have a say.

“I believe there needs to be a thorough look at it. The untidy bits based around arbitrary geographic locations of schools need to be done away with.”

About 300 students at Palmerston North Boys’ High School are affected by bus eligibility changes brought in this term.

Rector David Bovey said some were finding it hard to get to school.

“The fact that they’ve stopped to have a look at it now is possible, of course, but I’m hoping that will be expanded to looking at the areas where the changes have already been made.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The Marlborough District Council wants the government to protect the region’s current environment plan, saying new planning and environmental laws threaten to blow up a decade of hard work.

Marlborough Mayor Nadine Taylor told the Environment Select Committee the region’s geography and climate were distinct and maintaining its environment plan would provide certainty to its primary producers.

The Select Committee heard submissions on the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill – which would together replace the Resource Management Act – on Wednesday.

“I’m calling on MPs to protect Marlborough’s status as its own planning region and to safeguard our new planning framework – both are critical to the region’s economy and long-term sustainability,” Taylor said.

The Marlborough District Council is a unitary authority, a single local government body that combines the responsibilities of both a regional council and a territorial authority, which means it manages both local services and regional resource management for the entire Marlborough region.

Taylor said the council managed those functions across more than one million hectares of land and one of New Zealand’s most intricate coastlines.

“Our geography, climate and the industries we support are distinct. Parliament has recognised these differences in previous reform processes – I am asking the Select Committee to confirm that Marlborough remains a separate planning region,” she said.

The region’s combined environment plan provided a stable and well-understood framework for the region’s industries – including viticulture, aquaculture, forestry, farming and tourism – should be deemed fully operative until 2033, Taylor said.

She asked for the select committee to include a provision in Schedule 1 of the Planning Bill to deem the Marlborough Environment Plan fully operative for a defined period or, alternatively, to have the ability to apply for a longer transition during which the plan would continue to apply.

“The Marlborough Environment Plan is the product of more than a decade of work with extensive involvement from iwi, industry and the community and an investment of around $10 million,” Taylor said.

“Industry partners have invested millions more. It’s a sophisticated and newly-settled planning framework that gives confidence to businesses and enables long-term investment decisions.”

Nearly 90 percent of New Zealand’s wine exports were produced in Marlborough and the plan’s rules about water use ensured the viticulture industry was viable.

“Our growers and commercial lenders rely on the stability of the current plan. Requiring us to unravel this new framework now would be unnecessarily destabilising,” she said.

“With proposed rates capping, councils face real limits on funding new planning processes. Marlborough ratepayers should not be asked to repeat a process they have just completed.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Police are asking for the public’s help identifying two men who seriously assaulted a person during a robbery in Brooklyn, Wellington on Tuesday afternoon.

The victim was hospitalised with multiple injuries during the attack, on Ohiro Road around 5.40pm.

The men also stole the victim’s phone.

Police asked anyone with information to come forward.

You can call 105 or use the police website to report information, or provide anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.

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