Firstly, the Canterbury Aero Club were not involved with the training of these pilots, it was the IAANZ or International Aviation Academy of New Zealand.
From reading The Press last weekend, which covered the coroners inquest proceedings, the only person blaming the IAANZ was the father of one of the students. The father was also a commercial pilot in Mexico.
The father claimed that the academy did not warn students of the dangers of flying in mountainous areas and should not have let friends fly together without supervision.
The outcome was that the pilots lodged a flight plan, which was checked and approved by the IAANZ, but then the pilots failed to adhere to the plan. They descended well below the planned 8500ft flight level and deviated from the planned route. Basically, they entered terrain that they had minimal experience of.
Had they declared their actual flight path, the IAANZ would have NOT approved their flight.
Although they were both students, they had already sat and passed their PPL exams and flight test. They were training for their CPL (commercial) flight test. The pilot had 143 hours flying experience.
I am assuming that one of the students took on the role of an instructor, giving an informal lesson to the other pilot. This turned out to be a fatal mistake.
HercFeend wrote:I hear that the findings of this accident have been released and that CAC have in some way been blamed by the CAA.
Does anyone know where to find the report, I wanted to get all the facts and figures but can’t find a copy on-line.
Cheers