Specialist backs Air N.Z.

Press, 20 November 1981, Page 6

Specialist backs Air N.Z.

Air New Zealand had recognised and established necessary on-board safety procedures many years ago which had still not been adopted by many big international airline companies, said Dr Morgan Fahey yesterday. Dr Fahey had returned from an annual International Flight Safety Foundation seminar in Mexico last week. He was concerned about “unwarranted criticism” of the New Zealand airline, which had been in the forefront of many flight safety measures. One procedure was the

provision of cabin crew seating which protected the crew in sudden decelerations so that they could give immediate aid to passengers. Dr Fahey said that Air New Zealand, and the Civil Aviation Division were regarded as having safety standards of the highest international order. Another provision was a supply of medical equipment on international flights to cope with emergencies. Air New Zealand had adopted identical supplies to those - used out of West Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandi-

navia. They were now regarded by emergency care consultants as necessary for all international flights. However,. American airline companies had totally inadequate medical supplies on board. “The reason for this could well be fear of litigation,” Dr Fahey said. “The United States has only 6 per cent of the world’s population, but 37 per cent of the world’s lawyers.” Ground safety standards and crash contingency planning at New Zealand’s four main airports were now unequalled by any but a few

international airports, he said. The Flight Safety Foundation, which held its seminar in Christchurch last year, was concerned about the many airports with no effective plans to deal with an aircraft crash. In the first nine months of 1981, world figures showed a serious accident rate, with hull loss, of one accident in 488,000 flights for commercial jet aircraft. The rate was one accident in 833,000 flights in America. In Australasia and the South Pacific, the accident rate was one in 1,753,000 flights.