Concerns over incorrect airfield alerts
The South Waikato District Council has admitted fault following years of Civil Aviation Authority rule breaches.
It comes after reports of aircraft repeatedly landing among drag racing and driver training days at the Tokoroa Airfield due to the incorrect placement of white crosses which alert pilots to runway closures.
Although pilots are responsible for checking if airfields are open via Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) alerts, it is the council’s responsibility as the airfield operator to ensure event organisers place large white crosses on the runway to confirm the closure.
CAA Aerodrome Standards and Requirements state ‘‘on a closed runway, or strip, a marking or markers should be placed at one-third and twothirds the length of the closed runway’’. The council, however, has been allowing them to be placed on grassed areas next to the runway which is thought to be confusing pilots as to where they can and can’t land.
Long-time drone enthusiast Bruce Simpson said that after witnessing several near-misses over the years, he feared it was only a matter of time before someone was killed or seriously injured. ‘‘[In late 2019 after a plane landed] I told the council the crosses were not in the right place, and CAA weighed in and said they have to be placed in accordance with regulations which they were not,’’ Simpson said.
‘‘I just kept getting told: don’t worry, we are on top of it, we have learned from this and we are making changes but exactly a year later the same thing happened. It was the fifth incident in as many years.’’ Simpson said close calls were happening at least once a year.
‘‘It is too often. In one case a plane landed during a drag race and there was a caravan on the runway which had to move out of the way.’’
South Waikato District Council spokeswoman Kerry Fabrie confirmed the council had been providing wrong advice to event organisers.
‘‘The council acknowledges that the crosses were incorrectly placed and this may have contributed to pilot error.
‘‘Regardless though of where the crosses were placed, there was a NOTAM in place that should have been checked by the pilot and the crosses were visible from the air,’’ she said.
Fabrie said the council had updated its procedures.