Ep1 - Glider Crash/Motueka Tractor
Inspector Alan Moselen of the Civil Aviation Authority is on his way to the Auckland Gliding Club where a glider launch has gone drastically wrong. The pilot has ended up in Middlemore Hospital seriously injured, but miraculously, alive.
Although Civil Aviation don't usually investigate cases where the pilot survives. In this case they are concerned that there may be a mechanical defect with the glider or another factor around the accident that needs addressing.
Al is told that the glider stalled and spun to the ground almost immediately after takeoff, crashing on private land next to the airfield. As he starts to take in the scene all the signs point to the glider having dropped almost vertically from the sky. There is no evidence of an attempt at a landing.
For more information see the
CAA website.
In the South Island, Department of Labour Health and Safety Inspector Ron Burt, is dealing with a fall with a very different outcome. A tractor has gone over a steep bank, landing on top of the driver, and sadly there was no miraculous survival in case.
The police were first on the scene, and have already told Ron the victim was Hudson Boyes, a self-employed local man who had been contracted to mow grass on the property.
As a workplace accident, the police have now handed control of the scene to the Department of Labour. It is down to Ron and his colleague Peter Fisher to establish the cause of the accident, and whether there has been a breach of the Health and Safety in Employment Act.
For more information see the Department of Labour website
