The incident, along with several others, was part of a concerning ‘‘culture problem’’ at the airport where there was a ‘‘failure’’ to report incidents, airport manager Matthew Sisson told Waitaki district councillors this week.
After a propeller strike on the runway, the plane’s nose wheel detached during the ‘‘serious’’ incident about 9pm on February 13 last year.
An airfield inspection the following month uncovered ‘‘unexplained runway surface damage’’, no operator accepting responsibility at the time.
The hard landing was the third incident ‘‘of a similar nature involving the same operator’’ at the airport in recent years.
Earlier incidents were also not reported to the Waitaki District Council at the time.
Mr Sisson said he expected incidents to happen at the airport given the training nature of the facility but the ‘‘dangerous point of this is that it was not reported’’.
‘‘It was not about the accident itself but the failure to report,’’ he said.
There was a perceived culture of ‘‘complacency’’, ‘‘inadequate safety reporting behaviours’’ and ‘‘a tolerance of operational risk’’ at the airport which was described in a health and safety update brought to council this week as ‘‘inconsistent with expected aviation safety standards’’.
Mr Sisson’s report was the ‘‘first of its kind’’ since he took over as airport manager in July and provided a snapshot of incidents in the last year.
There were some issues to do with the condition of assets but more than two-thirds of the reports were attributed to third-party operators, he said.
‘‘Collectively, these events highlight a pattern of serious third-party operational incidents and raise concerns regarding reporting compliance, safety culture and risk management practices.
‘‘Contributing factors appear to include complacency, inadequate safety reporting behaviours and a tolerance of operational risk that is inconsistent with expected aviation safety standards,’’ Mr Sisson wrote in the report prepared for yesterday’s meeting.
Mr Sisson said he was ‘‘working hard’’ with the Civil Aviation Authority and users of the airport to build a ‘‘culture of reporting’’.
‘‘It is slowly getting better,’’ he said.
Following the February incident last year, Mr Sisson wrote that ‘‘despite being encouraged to meet their regulatory obligations, the operator did not promptly report the occurrence’’.
‘‘As a result, airport management escalated the matter by lodging an Aviation Related Concern with the CAA in November 2025.
‘‘The operator did not formally report the incident to the council until February 2026, approximately 12 months after the event.’’
All incidents reported to the CAA were of a ‘‘serious nature’’ and ‘‘attributable to third-party activities, with a significant proportion influenced by complacency and behavioural factors’’, he wrote.
Increased monitoring and oversight at the airport had been implemented. Additional oversight was being provided by the CAA, he said.
Asked by Mayor Mel Tavendale if he was seeing a shift in behaviour and attitude at this stage, Mr Sisson said report numbers were ‘‘increasing’’ but that it was about ‘‘reporting the right things as well’’.
