Safety concerns about Tonga's new domestic aircraft

Transcript

Concerns have been raised about the safety of Tonga's new domestic aircraft that arrived last week.

Tonga's airline, Real Tonga, took delivery of the MA60 which was a gift from China.

But New Zealand's Foreign Minister has suspended million of dollars of aid money until the plane is internationally certified.

Jamie Tahana reports:

A New Zealand aviation commentator, Peter Clark, says the brand of aircraft is not certified by regulatory authorities in the United States, Britain or New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority.

PETER CLARK: Normally the NZCAA here would certify it and that could flow on into Pacific Island nations that adhere to our rules and Tonga is one of those. It won't be certified in New Zealand because it is considered to be an aircraft that has a risk involved in travelling on it.

Mr Clark says the Chinese-made turboprops have been grounded in Myanmar and Indonesia after a series of incidents. And Zimbabwe's leader has ordered his family not to fly on them.

PETER CLARK: I found out that there's a been an incredible number of whole losses on this aircraft. There's been lives lost and it even got down to the situation where I found out in Zimbabwe, President Mugabe has said that his family, himself and the government are not to fly on this type.

The MA60 is providing domestic flights around the Kingdom that were previously operated by the New Zealand-owned Chathams Pacific. New Zealand's foreign minister, Murray McCully, says the cessation of the Air Chathams service, as well as the safety concerns around the plane, prompted him to put US$8 million worth of aid money for tourism promotion on hold.

MURRAY MCCULLY: It was not going to be seen as a very responsible use of New Zealand taxpayers money to promote a tourism product to New Zealander's at a time when they were simply getting cancellations of the existing tickets. So we wanted to see things play out, but it was also clear at that point that there were some significant safety issues around the aircraft proposed for use by the new service provider.

But Tonga's deputy prime minister says the kingdom will not buckle under pressure from New Zealand. Samiu Vaipulu, who is also the transport minister, says human error caused last year's crash in Indonesia that killed 25 people and prompted it to be banned from three Indonesian airports because of difficult landing strips. Mr Vaipulu says the King of Tonga caught the plane with the High Commissioner of New Zealand last week, and it was flown to Tonga by US pilots who reported no problems with it. He says Mr McCully should provide a plane if he is so concerned.

SAMIU VAIPULU: The most simple thing is for Mr McCully to contact the government of China and ask them if it is a faulty airplane. Why would they give it as a gift to Tonga? We have built our billboards, we have started our TV programmes in New Zealand - we're not stopping.

Murray McCully says Tonga has rejected an offer to help with safety issues and Mr Vaipulu has been pushing to get the Chinese plane.

MURRAY MCCULLY: I've been offering to fund aviation safety expertise to go to Tonga if that would assist in dealing with the issue. That's not an offer they had been prepared to accept, so we really are in their hands.

Samiu Vaipulu says tourists will not be turned off because of concerns about the plane, and flights for the next three months are filling up.