Hertz cleared of air crash blame
Inquest finds mechanical failure, not 2degrees boss’ mental illness medication, caused fatal plane accident
The plane crash that killed 2degrees boss Eric Hertz and his wife was caused by mechanical failure — and not the drugs Hertz was taking for a mental illness, a coroner has ruled.
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 his medication.
Hertz was flying his Beechcraft Baron bound for Timaru with his wife, Katherine, 64, on March 30, 2013 when the left engine failed off the coast of Raglan at 11.47am.
A Civil Aviation Authority inquiry established Hertz had 38 seconds to recognise that power to the left engine had reduced, causing the plane to “trim” or point its nose up and slow.
Before Hertz could take corrective action by switching off the auto pilot and gliding towards the Raglan airstrip, the plane went into a spin.
CAA safety investigator Dan Foley told the coroner’s inquest last February that Hertz would have lost situational awareness because he was flying in cloud. Foley said Hertz’s mental health and medication he was taking likely exacerbated his disorientation.
Hertz had been diagnosed with general anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder. He was taking Duloxetine, a medicine that can cause poor or delayed decisionmaking, distraction, reduced alertness and incapacitation.
He had failed to disclose his mental illness on medical certificate applications as part of his pilot’s licence to both the CAA in 2011 and the Federal Aviation Administration in 2005 in the United States, where he hailed from.
But his younger brother Eli Hertz, a former US Navy pilot and instructor, told the inquest his brother was a competent airman who would, while flying in cloud, have had to overcome a series of difficult issues to keep the plane from stalling and going into a spin. Eli Hertz said an engineering error during modification of the twin-engine Beechcraft caused the insecure upper deck pressure line in the left engine that led to the crash five years ago.
The plane had been modified and a turbocharger fitted that month.
During a test flight following the installation, Hertz experienced a sig- nificant drop in engine power and the turbocharger was replaced under the manufacturer’s warranty.
But after the new turbocharger was installed a power problem was discovered and inlet ducting was sent back to the manufacturer for inspection where testing found some distortion.
Another test flight two days before the crash was uneventful and the aircraft was cleared for use after the engineer made minor adjustments to the left engine fuel
flow. Matenga said there was not enough evidence to make a finding on the cause of the power loss and he did not attribute blame to the engineer who cleared the plane for flight.
In his findings Matenga accepted medical expert testimony from Dr Allen Parmet that Hertz was not affected by Duloxetine or his health problems, but that the cloud the couple were flying in caused Hertz’s loss of situational awareness.
There were no cockpit audio recordings to assess whether Hertz panicked but in the earlier test flight when power was lost an engineer with him said the pilot handled the situation “quite well”.
But Matenga accepted that had Hertz properly identified his history of depression and anxiety disorder, it was very unlikely he would have Coroner Gordon Matenga been issued with a pilot’s licence in either New Zealand or the US.
“My concern is that self-assessment and self-declaration relies solely on the integrity of the applicant,” Matenga said. “Each applicant pilot is aware that his or her answers have the potential to suspend or cancel their ability to fly, creating a significant conflict of interest.
“The potential for conflict is increased in circumstances where the applicant is a professional pilot: Tell the truth and have your licence cancelled or suspended, or lie and keep flying. This remains the process for all pilots.”
Matenga recommended that CAA and the Ministry of Transport consider amending CAA rules to require an applicant’s GP to complete section 20 of the application for a medical certificate, or devise a questionnaire to be completed by the pilot’s doctor.
The recommendations, which would require legislative amendment, would be sent to the Transport Accident Investigation Commission and the FAA.
Eli Hertz told the Herald the Hertz family were grateful to Matenga, the CAA and the police for their work investigating the accident that killed their much-loved family members.
“Our hope is that other pilots will never find themselves in similarly challenging situation where engine failure at high altitude in the clouds affords no margin of error.
“Kathy and Eric’s legacies are honoured by determining and bringing to light the causes of this unfortunate series of events, so that others might avoid the same outcome.”