Safety concerns have seen the grounding of Originair branded planes at Nelson Airport. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) corporate communications spokesperson Mike Richards said it was currently investigating Originair's operator Air Freight NZ after safety concerns were brought to its attention. Richards said the CAA had restricted the operating certificate of charter service Air Freight NZ Ltd. Temporary conditions which restricted its ability to conduct flights for Originair had been placed on Air Freight NZ's aircraft operating certificate while those safety concerns were investigated. Richards declined to comment further on the nature of the safety concerns or when the temporary conditions limiting Air Freight's certificate were enacted. He said the CAA "do not disclose details about an active investigation [but] suffice to say that we had concerns that warranted the steps we took". Originair is operated by Air Freight NZ, which is in turn managed by Fieldair Engineering Ltd. Fieldair's general manager Mark Troughear said the safety concerns at issue were "very specific to the particular operation" of Origin, but declined to comment on their nature. "We're not at liberty to talk about that outside of the CAA," he said. "The operation involves a whole lot of aspects. There's a number of things there that the CAA may look at." He did not believe the safety concerns were related to Originair planes, he said. He said the limits on Air Freight NZ's operating certificate did not affect any of its other commercial operations, which include an air ambulance. "There will be a small amount of costs that Air Freight will be absorbing while it can't operate," Troughear said, noting the inevitable cost of aeroplane fuel and airways. Richards, of the CAA, said Originair had contracted another operator, Airwork NZ Ltd, to conduct its flights while the CAA undertook the investigation. Originair stopped flying jetstream aircraft in its operating colours 10 days ago, instead using two unmarked Airwork NZ metroliners, owner Robert Inglis said. He and general manager Michael Curry said they were not aware of any issues with Air Freight's operating certificate. Inglis said "any issues between the CAA and Air Freight are between them". "The CAA wouldn't tell me about that because it's not my business." He said the decision to transfer its operation to Airwork, described by Curry as "like moving from Vodafone to Telecom", was primarily due to the operator's greater range of available aircraft. Inglis said the airline had considered changing operators in the new year and hoped to complete the transfer of its aircraft to Airwork in the next few days. He refuted any suggestion that the recent operator changeover was prompted by Air Freight's limited ability to conduct flights for the airline.
White wash, there's much much more to this story. Let's hope the truth comes out
ReplyDeleteIt's gotta be pretty serious stuff for CAA to take the action they have. I imagine Airfreght / Feildair have more than just a superficial interest in this given it's basically their airline in originair colours. From the stuff article Inglis seems unconcerned? Whatever has happened has put his airlines future in serious jeopardy
ReplyDeleteFAE and AFNZ are not at fault, the fact they notified the caa to a problem that has led to the grounding says it all. its clearly not an engineering problem as the convairs and life flight jetstream have not been grounded and fly as usual. inglis and curry are just in damage control mode trying to save their reputation....which was questionable in the first place.
ReplyDeleteBut FAE are the maintenance organisation, AFNZ are the registered operator and the jetstreams are operated on their AOC? Who else could be responsible? Surely all senior persons are contained within these two organisations? Originair does not hold an AOC, do they not outsource the entire operational side? Maybe they aren't paying bills but that wouldn't result in CAA investigating AFNZ/FAE. Why would airwork risk their operation if anything dodgy was going on?
DeleteThis venture was dodgy form the get go - Google virtual airlines and you'll see the nature of this beast. It never ends well.
DeleteBut how can simply selling tickets and putting bums on seats be dodgy? That's all Originair are doing. AFNZ are ultimately responsible for the operation of the two Jetstreams and not Originair. So the answer/s must lie with something going on in the passenger handling rules and regulations of the AFNZ AOC. Or does AFNZ have an acute crew shortage and at some point has the no doubt pressure cooker training regime lacked suitable oversight thus creating the safety related issue?
ReplyDeleteAirwork/Inflite will be pleased with the business keeping the otherwise semi retired Metroliners on the move.
As for the Lifeflight contract - that is probably running under the provision of a different CAA regulation.
Believe the paper work was getting done by origin itself
DeleteSo it appears yes. Very very dodgy
DeleteMetroliners again today... this can't be cheap!
ReplyDeleteOriginair did two trips between Nelson and Palmerston North using a Jetstream 32 with Inflite callsigns today... I noted Inflite's J32 ZK-ECJ positioned to Nelson last night
ReplyDeleteAnd today a Metro is positioning back to Nelson
ReplyDelete