The airline pilots union has joined Air New Zealand in warning people not to jump to conclusions about what caused an Airbus A320 to crash off France last year.
The crash killed all seven people on board, two German pilots and five New Zealanders, four of them Air New Zealand staff and the other a Civil Aviation Authority staff member.
The aircraft was on an acceptance flight before it was handed back to Air New Zealand by German aviation company XL Airways which had leased it for two years.
A preliminary report by French investigators said today during low-level manoeuvres the crew lost control and it crashed nose first into the sea.
It said the acceptance flight was shortened and during low-speed checks, which were planned to be done at a higher altitude, the crew lost control.
Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe today warned against drawing premature conclusions from the report about the cause of the crash.
He said it was a preliminary report and only partially outlined some aspects of the crash.
The Airline Pilots' Association (Alpa) said today the report described what happened, but not what caused the accident.
Alpa said its own pilot expert investigator would join the French investigation team.
"This gives us greater confidence in the accident investigation process under way," Alpa executive director Rick Mirkin said.
"The official investigators in France have reached no conclusions nor made any statement referring to the cause of the accident." Speculation as to the cause of the accident would not only be improper, but potentially misleading and incorrect, and damaging to the feelings and/or reputations of parties involved, he said in a statement.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission also sent a representative to France for the investigation and was due to make a formal comment on the report later today.
