CAA medical asessment: pilot was "an accident waiting to happen"

Michael Bannerman was a pilot from New Zealand who was considered dangerous. He took too many unnecessary risks with passengers and their lives, and his passengers would come out of his flights feeling that that was exactly the situation. Even so, he continued to fly for Air Adventures, until finally the inevitable happened. He killed himself, and took seven executive passengers to their graves, in the Piper Chieftain (file photo, right)  he was flying 15 months ago.

The New Zealand High Court, as reported by the New Zealand Herald, has just lifted a court order that kept the details of Bannerman's record secret. The details of that record are raising eyebrows and making people wonder what in the world was going on.

• The CAA medical examiner who flew with Bannerman said he was "an accident waiting to happen" -- not once, but several times.
• Several businessmen who chartered a flight and flew with Bannerman ended the flight fearing for their lives. The reason: Bannerman got lost, ran out of fuel and had to make an unscheduled landing.
• Bannerman was a drinker, and boasted of his close calls when he got drunk.

As the investigation into the crash continues, Mr. Timothy Bunnett, a former executive of Kiwi Dairies, described a trip he took with three other execs as the flight from hell. The trip was supposed to take two hours, but that doubled when Bannerman couldn't figure out where he was. At one point, said the witnesses, the aircraft came out of the clouds near Mt. Cook. He then wandered through the sky until finally he was running out of fuel, and was forced to land at Nelson Airport.

Bunnett and his companions were left grateful... that they still had their lives. "There was no conversation with the pilot," said Mr Bunnett. "I recall seeing him looking at books ... at that stage we all knew we were lost."

Dr Susan Newton, a CAA examiner and medical doctor working in a mobile surgery unit, flew with Bannerman five times. Two of those times, she feared for her life.  Dr. Newton is not only a medical examiner, she is also married to a commercial helicopter pilot. This is not an MD talking about something without any real knowledge. She told her story of when Bannerman took her on a flight, and the wings began to develop icing as they were crossing the Southern Alps. Knowing that the plane did not have deice equipment, she expressed her concern to him. Bannerman's response was that everything was fine. The next time he scared her was when he flew into an airport at night, knowing the airport had no lighting.

"His standard answer to everything was, 'It will be fine'," she said. He then proceeded to make an illegal landing at the airport. After that, Dr. Newton refused to fly with Bannerman. She returned home after that flight in a car. After Bannerman crashed and killed himself and his passengers, she told police that Bannerman was "an accident waiting to happen," but she did not communicate that to the CAA.

Air Adventures had a tradition of Friday night drinks at the facility after the day's flying was done. Dennis Hill, another pilot at the company, told the court that Bannerman would drink wine and boast of his close calls. Hill eventually quit the company in 1999, when he realized that Air Adventures did not have policies that promoted "safety and responsibility."

FMI: www.caa.govt.nz