Air New Zealand Blamed Illness; The Regulator Heard Something Else

Air New Zealand flight NZ7, a Boeing 787-9 due to leave San Francisco for Auckland on September 7, was cancelled shortly before departure. Passengers were emailed that due to sickness, the pilot scheduled to operate the service was no longer able to do so. The replacement service, renumbered NZ6077, eventually departed more than fourteen hours behind schedule once a fresh crew had been flown across the Pacific and taken their mandatory rest. New Zealand outlets subsequently reported that illness was not the cause at all.

According to the NZ Herald and several aviation outlets, two pilots had an altercation at their layover hotel in San Francisco, reportedly physical, after a dispute that began on the flight out from Auckland. Air New Zealand’s chief safety and risk officer, Nathan McGraw, confirmed the airline is aware of a matter between two crew members off duty in the United States which is currently being investigated, while stressing there was no incident onboard the aircraft. The two pilots were flown home as passengers, reportedly on separate aircraft.

New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority has been notified and says it considers all information brought to its attention and will determine whether any regulatory action is required. Crew resource management training exists precisely so that two people who dislike each other can still run a flight deck safely, and the professional consensus is that a crew who genuinely cannot work together should stand down rather than attempt it. On that reading the cancellation was the correct outcome, reached by an extremely uncomfortable route.

What sits less comfortably is the message to passengers. Airlines are not obliged to explain internal personnel matters, but there is a difference between declining to elaborate and attributing a cancellation to a specific cause that was not the cause. Stated delay and cancellation reasons feed into compensation entitlements, insurance claims and passengers’ own decisions about whether to wait or rebook, which is why the reason given is not merely a courtesy. The investigation’s findings, if published, will be the more interesting document.

Sources: NZ Herald, Simple Flying