Tory Channel line 'marked as required’

Press, 19 July 1986, Page 2

Tory Channel line 'marked as required’

Blenheim reporter The Marlborough Electric Power Board had proceeded with the Tory Channel power line on the basis that Civil Aviation Division consent was mandatory before it could do so, said the general manager of the board, Mr F. J. Forrest, yesterday. He was commenting on the report released on Thursday on the fatal Air Albatross accident in Tory Channel last October,

Mr Forrest said the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents, Mr Ron Chippindale, concluded that the board erected the power line in accordance with the specifications for construction and marking defined by the relevant authorities. “It is ironic that the only criticism of the board is for lighting it provided of its own volition in addition to Civil Aviation Division’s requirements,” Mr Forrest said.

He said it was important to appreciate that all marking requirements specified by the Civil

Aviation Division were complied with fully. The lights the board provided of its own volition were never intended as a daylight marker but as a dusk and evening marker. “They were completely effective for that purpose as evidenced by a request from the Marlborough Harbour Board to switch off the lights during the hours of darkness because of the problems they caused shipping,” he said.

It was a statement of fact contained in the report that at the time of the accident the poles were freshly painted and that one witness who was circling the accident in an aircraft shortly after the mishap said the “pylons were quite apparent.” “Sadly, Mr Chippendale’s report found that ‘the probable cause of the accident was that the pilot flew at less than the minimum safe height required by Civil Aviation regulation 38 in ignorance of an obstruction caused by power line conductors across his path’, ” Mr Forrest said.