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| Date: | Sunday 2 July 1995 |
| Time: | c. 13:08 LT |
| Type: |  Hawker Siddeley HS-748-242 Srs. 2 |
| Owner/operator: | Mount Cook Airline, opb Ansett New Zealand |
| Registration: | ZK-CWJ |
| MSN: | 1647 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1968 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | None |
| Category: | Serious incident |
| Location: | Wellington International Airport (WLG/NZWN) -
 New Zealand
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Wellington International Airport (WLG/NZWN) |
| Nelson Airport (NSN/NZNS) | |
| Investigating agency: | TAIC |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
During the morning and early afternoon of Sunday 2 July 1995 the weather at Wellington was fine
and settled. At Wellington Airport weather reports had progressively recorded scattered cloud at
2500 feet, rising to 3500 feet and then clearing completely, while the visibility rose from 40 to 60
km. The surface wind had varied from light and variable to a 10 knot easterly. At about midday it
changed to a four knot northerly before becoming light and variable again. The 2000 foot wind
remained a light easterly.
Wellington aerodrome traffic was moderately busy with a mixture of VFR light aircraft and
scheduled airline arrivals and departures. In the ten minute period surrounding this incident
Wellington Tower was providing air traffic control services to 15 different aircraft.
At 1302.26 hours a Hawker Siddeley 748 aircraft, callsign Ansett 719, on a scheduled flight to
Nelson, requested taxi clearance and was cleared to the holding point for Runway 34. At 1306.00
hours Ansett 719 reported ready for take-off, and was instructed to hold; to expect take-off behind a
Partenavia light twin aeroplane on short final.
ZK-ERA, the Partenavia, had made contact with Wellington Tower at 1258 hours on a VFR arrival,
and had been sequenced to follow a Metroliner, itself following a Saab 340 on final approach for
Runway 34. At 1306.27 hours ZK-ERA was given a conditional landing clearance while the
Metroliner ahead was vacating the runway. The clearance included the instruction to "taxi right",
which was duly acknowledged.
At 1304.29 hours a Boeing 737, callsign New Zealand 450, on a scheduled flight from
Christchurch, reported to Wellington Tower on a visual approach. Wellington Tower advised that
the Boeing 737 was number three in sequence, behind the Partenavia. At that stage the Boeing 737
was about 8 nm out on long final.
At 1306.36 hours the HS 748 was cleared to line up behind the Partenavia which was then on short
final, and to be ready for an immediate take-off. The aircraft was accordingly lined up and held on
the runway, waiting for the Partenavia to clear after landing.
At 1307.22 hours Wellington Tower instructed ZK-ERA to "expedite clear". The pilot of ZK-ERA
responded "OK, request left clear", which Wellington Tower approved at 1307.27 hours. The
aircraft was taxied left off the runway at taxiway W2.
Ansett 719 was "cleared immediate take-off" at 1307.33 hours, and promptly commenced its take-
off roll. At that stage the Boeing 737 was about 1.1 nm from the runway threshold.
Ten seconds later, at 1307.43, Wellington Tower issued a conditional landing clearance to NZ 450:
"748 departing, cleared to land".
NZ 450 crossed the runway threshold at about 1308.02 hours, and landed while the HS 748 was still
accelerating on the runway before becoming airborne.
The exact time the HS 748 became airborne was not established because of radar limitations, but
was probably about 1308.14. It crossed the departure end of the runway at 1308.26 hours.
The minimum runway separation standards had been revised by ACNZ with effect from 27 April
1995. These revised standards were introduced to increase runway utilisation by allowing reduced
separation to be applied in some circumstances.
Safety Recommendations:
It was recommended to the Chief Executive of Airways Corporation of New Zealand that he:
Continue to counsel controllers to apply caution and conservative judgement to the specific
situation of an arriving and a departing aircraft, especially where the arriving aircraft is of higher
performance (012/96) and
Review the use of language in such documents as MATS to ensure that ambiguities do not occur.
(013/96)
It was recommended to The Director of Civil Aviation that he:
Develop some educational material on go-around procedures where involuntary overtaking may
occur, and promulgate this to pilots and controllers. (014/96)
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.taic.org.nz/sites/default/files/inquiry/documents/AO-1995-012.pdf
https://www.airhistory.net/photo/818432/ZK-CWJ (Photo)
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 19 August 1975 | ZK-CWJ | Mount Cook Air Services Ltd | Christchurch Airport, Canterbury | |
unk | |
| 13 September 1991 | ZK-CWJ | Mount Cook Airlines Ltd | 0 | Wellington Airport, Wellington 1 | |
min |
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 24-Aug-2025 11:45 | Justanormalperson | Added |
| 24-Aug-2025 11:45 | Justanormalperson | Updated [Accident report, ] |
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