Revelations over flouting of curfew

QUEENSTOWN Airport’s nighttime curfew was flouted last year because the control tower, an airport staff member and an airline did not think it was important enough to ground the flight.

Jetstar flight JQ220, bound for Melbourne, took off 13 minutes after the 10pm curfew on May 20.

A redacted transcript of the conversation between the control tower and pilot was released by Airways after Allied Press complained to the Ombudsman over its refusal to do so under the Official Information Act.

The transcript shows the curfew, a condition of the airport’s resource consent to mitigate the impact on the community, was seen to be ‘‘just for local council only’’ and ‘‘nothing to do with CAA or any of the Airways rules’’.

The Otago Daily Times reported last year a security guard gave the final clearance from QAC, and staff that night did not fully grasp the relationship between the curfew and the airport’s relationship with the community.

Airport operations manager Mike Clay, who was acting chief executive at the time, said manuals had since been rewritten and he was ‘‘pretty confident’’ there would not be a repeat of the incident, which earned the airport a ‘‘caution’’ from the council.

‘‘Certainly [it was] a pretty big event and so everyone was very, very aware of the situation.

‘‘It certainly caused a reaction that we certainly didn’t want.’’

Weather had affected operations on May 20, which had runon effects for flight JQ220 which had 99 passengers on board.

At 9.54pm the pilot asked the tower to confirm curfew requirements, after which confusion reigned.

The curfew was set out in three different places in the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP); the airport’s Aerodrome Operation Manual; and pilot route manuals.

Ultimately Jetstar head office, the airport’s rescue fire and terminal operations team were contacted by the parties for assistance and, according to the transcript, Jetstar and the ‘‘Queenstown Airport company’’ approved the late takeoff — the latter at 10pm, 10.02pm and again at

❛ It certainly caused

a reaction that we certainly didn’t want

Mike Clay

10.10pm.

Mr Clay said the airport had since ‘‘articulated’’ the curfew clearly in all documents, ‘‘so it’s much harder for there to be any confusion around what’s required’’.

It had also written to airlines, retrained management staff and made an ‘‘escalation flow chart’’ so when ‘‘technical, nonstandard issues’’ arose there was a clear chain of command.

With regard to the security guard giving clearance, Mr Clay said it had also been made ‘‘absolutely clear’’ duty managers were not to hand over the duty phone until the ‘‘absolute end of their operational shift’’.