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Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Skydive plane lands in water

Earlier today, a skydiving aircraft operating out of Taupo airport [NZAP] landed in the water, some time after takeoff. News reports indicate that all 13 people in board, including the pilot, managed to bail out successfully.

I don't intend to speculate on the cause of the accident [see my Rules for assessing aviation news reports, below :-)], but it appears that the aircraft was a Skydive Taupo operated Pacific Aerospace 750XL, ZK-SDT. The following file photo is from last November when I was in Taupo.


Rodney's rules for assessing aviation news reports

  1. If it is published in the first week, it almost certainly contains critical errors
  2. If it's published by regular news media, it is almost certainly rubbish
  3. If it is published by aviation-specific media, at least 1-2 weeks after the accident, there might be a grain of truth in it
  4. If it is published by competent authority, after a full investigation [often 12-18 months after the accident], it's probably ok
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2 comments:

  1. Paul Spence11 January 2015 at 17:16

    I think your rules are spot on Rodney. Media reports about aviation incidents are generally disgracefully inaccurate and speculative. On a vaguely related note, why are grieving relatives and media allowed to mix openly whenever there is an air crash in Asia? I find it quite astounding.

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  2. Rodney11 January 2015 at 17:43

    Thanks Paul.

    I'm all for media freedom, but with freedom comes some responsibility, and media (not just overseas, but often here as well) seems to think it is their right to say whatever, whenever, not matter who it hurts or harms. Grrrrrrrr!

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