Skydiving plane that crashed in New Zealand, killing 9 in 2010, was 37 pounds over the weight limit

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Skydiving plane that crashed in New Zealand, killing 9 in 2010, was 37 pounds over the weight limit - @AP

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NICK PERRY | Published: May 10, 2012 Associated Press Comment on this article

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Article Gallery: Findings in NZ skydiving crash cite weight problem

The report has prompted one victim's father to claim New Zealand's popular adventure-tourism industry is unsafe — a claim New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key has rejected.

The small plane had been modified from agricultural to skydiving use three months before it crashed near Fox Glacier airfield on Sept. 4, 2010. But owner Skydive New Zealand failed to calculate the proper weight changes before flying the modified aircraft, the Transport Accident Investigation Commission concluded in its report, released Wednesday.

It was 17 kilograms (37 pounds) over the weight limit when it crashed and too much of the weight was at the rear of the plane, investigators said.

A father of one of the tourists on board blamed the crash on lax New Zealand safety enforcement and a legal system that essentially prevents people from suing for negligence.

"To people thinking of going to New Zealand on an adrenaline sport, think twice," Chris Coker of Britain told the BBC. His son, Bradley Coker, was 24.