Crash caused by engine failure
The aircraft crash in which 2degrees boss Eric Hertz and his wife Kathy died was caused by mechanical failure, a coroner has ruled.
However, Coroner Gordon Matenga has recommended changes to the medical certificate application process for pilots after he discovered Hertz was not fit to fly the plane that day because of the medication he was taking.
Hertz, 58, and wife Katherine Picone Hertz, 64, died when their aircraft crashed in the sea south of Gannet Island, after the left engine failed off the Raglan coast in 2013.
The Civil Aviation Authority said the investigation was one of the most complex aviation safety probes of recent times.
At 11.47am on March 30 Hertz, piloting his Beechcraft Baron aircraft, took off from Ardmore Aerodrome bound for Timaru.
The couple were on their way to visit their daughter. At around 30 minutes into the flight the aircraft was operating in cloud.
The plane ‘‘departed controlled flight’’ and went into an unrecoverable spin before crashing into the Tasman Sea.
A Search and Rescue operation was commenced, and police with the assistance of the New Zealand Navy located the wreckage using sonar.
Navy divers recovered the bodies of Hertz and his wife Kathy a week later, both died as a result of multiple injuries caused by the crash.
The aircraft departed from controlled flight because airspeed decreased to a point where control was lost.
The airspeed decreased because the left engine failed.
No findings can be made as to the cause of the failure of the left engine.
CAA safety investigator Dan Foley told the coroner’s inquest last February that Hertz would have lost situational awareness, and became disorientated during and following the departure from controlled flight, because he was in cloud.
Hertz had been diagnosed with general anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder and was taking Duloxetine.
The drug can cause poor or delayed decision-making, distraction, reduced alertness and incapacitation.
However, coroner Matenga said there was insufficient evidence to find that any of these contributed to the loss of situational awareness.
Hertz had failed to disclose his mental illness on medical certificate applications as part of his pilot’s licence to both the Civil Aviation Authority and the Federal Aviation Administration.
As at March 30, Hertz was not entitled to be issued a medical certificate by FAA or CAA.