Parents of tourists killed doing adventure trips in New Zealand have expressed anger and sorrow at news of the Fox Glacier helicopter crash.
British father Chris Coker, whose son, Brad, died in the Fox Glacier skydiving plane crash in 2010, said he was devastated to hear more tourists had been killed in New Zealand.
Six tourists – two from Australia and four from the United Kingdom – were killed when the helicopter they were on crash on Fox Glacier just before 11am on Saturday. The helicopter pilot, Queenstown's Mitchell Gameren, was also killed.
"It's devastating to know that the police have knocked on doors in the UK telling more families their loved ones have died," Coker said.
"I know how that feels. It's really really awful, it smashes your life in pieces. As parents you just don't ever recover. We are still in a dark place."
He had campaigned tirelessly since his son's death to have health and safety improvements implemented in the New Zealand adventure tourism industry.
"I predicted this and now something has happened like this again. I can't say I'm surprised. I don't think the industry is regulated properly."
The grief of losing his son had not lessened in the five years since his death.
"It is in our minds constantly. We have had no closure because we never found out what happened and the New Zealand Government, the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] and the TAIC [Transport Accident Investigation Commission] have not learned any lessons from it," Coker said.
Chris Jordan below campaigned for adventure tourism safety improvements.
"You could say time will tell what happened on Saturday, but for me I don't think it will. I don't have a lot of trust in the TAIC. They hid evidence from the crash five years ago. They said they brought it to a secure location, but they buried it and never inspected the flying controls."
He said a proper investigation was needed to see if it could have been prevented and to put changes in place to ensure it did not happen again.
"For me, I think that without lessons being learned, lives will continue to be lost.
"I feel the Government, the TAIC and the CAA want the best result for New Zealand publicity rather than getting down to it," he said.
"It's time for change. The Government really needs to wake up and take action. It's utterly ridiculous."
Prime Minister John Key said adventure tourism had been through "substantial changes" over the last three or four years and the helicopter crash at Fox Glacier on Saturday was "tragic".
A spokeswoman for Key said the incident was still being investigated so it would be inappropriate for him to comment any further.
Coker said he hoped TAIC would have learned from the recent report into their investigation and ensured the integrity of wreckage evidence.
Last month, TAIC commissioned an independent review into the crash that killed Brad Coker, and eight others in September 2010.
The review found the investigation into the crash lacked resources and handled evidence poorly. The report noted the investigation was done under "difficult circumstances", with the investigator in charge being the only TAIC air investigator available that day.
Bradley Coker below died in the 2010 Fox Glacier skydiving plane crash.
TAIC sent a team of four to investigate Saturday's helicopter crash.
Drowned British backpacker Emily Jordan's father, Chris Jordan, said the news of six more tourists dying was "very sad".
Emily Jordan, 21, drowned during a Mad Dog River Boarding trip near Queenstown in 2008. The company was fined almost $150,000 after pleading guilty to two charges under the Health and Safety Act.
The year after Emily's death, after 37 deaths in New Zealand in four years, Prime Minister John Key ordered a government review of the adventure sector.
New regulations governing commercial adventure activities were enacted in 2011 and operators must pass audits and register with WorkSafe New Zealand.
Chris Jordan, who repeatedly raised concerns about the sector after his daughter's death, said he was pleased with the outcome of the sector review in 2010 but was disappointed it took so long to implement change and that it relied on operator compliance and registration, rather than government-led licensing.
He hoped the Fox Glacier crash was not caused by "issues that used to exist in the industry like lack of maintenance".
"Obviously I don't know any details about what happened, I expect there will be an open inquiry and investigation."
"My heart goes out to those families. it's very upsetting."
"Life doesn't change. Things don't get better. It is still very much a part of our life," he said.
Chris Jordan set up a charity in 2008 in Emily's name to help young people, like Emily's brother Alex, with learning disabilities.
"We have raised quite a lot of money and are doing a lot of good work with young people so something good has come of Emily's death," he said.
TOURISM A MAJOR INDUSTRY
Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said safety was taken "extremely seriously" and any incident like this was one incident too many.
However, he did not expect the fatal crash to have a significant impact on the country's tourism industry.
"Whilst this is an absolute tragedy, it is unlikely that it will stop people coming to New Zealand or participating in activities."
Every year more than 3 million international visitors and many more Kiwis enjoyed tourism experiences in New Zealand without incident, Bowler said.
Glacier Country Tourism Group chairman Rob Jewell said so far the crash had not affected the number of bookings coming in for tourist accommodation and activities in the area.
Jewell said he did not expect the tragedy to have a long-term negative impact on tourism in the area.
"The glaciers are a real tourism icon in New Zealand.
"People travel from all over the world to come and visit them."
There was a "high-degree of shock" in the community following the accident, he said.
"I've met with a few different people; everyone just deals with it in their own way."
Local tourism providers would have to work through any fallout from the crash but the priority at the moment was recovering the bodies, Jewell said.
Annual international and domestic visitor spend on the West Coast is $288m; the equivalent to 20.4 per cent of the region's GDP, according to the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand (TIA).
"I've met with a few different people; everyone just deals with it in their own way."
Prime Minister John Key is Tourism Minister and in the last 10 years health and safety has become a new part of Kiwi corporate culture – adventure tourism has often been front and centre of that focus.
Key is optimistic the Fox Glacier crash won't have an impact on the country's "fairly good record when it comes to aviation".
"For the most part if people look at these matters they'll see we've made significant changes in recent years in adventure tourism to try and make that industry safer."
He said helicopter trips were already covered under civil aviation rules but other parts of adventure tourism have seen a "reasonably dramatic change".
So many parts of the industry weren't regulated and there "weren't the requirements that are on them now," Key said.
"When it comes to helicopter trips they were already covered and there weren't changes as a result of what took places in terms of aviation changes, as I understand it."
He said he backed TAIC to do a good job of the investigation and work out "what went wrong and why and whether there's any learnings to come out of that".
Key said for the most part people accepted there were helicopter crashes around the world.
"New Zealand takes these issues seriously and hopefully it won't put (tourists) off."
New regulations governing commercial adventure activities required operators to have registered with WorkSafe New Zealand by November 2014.
Tourism is one of the West Coast region's major industries.
Visitor nights in the region increased 11.2 per cent for the year to June and almost one in nine jobs held by Westland District residents were supported by tourism.
In August, TIA chief executive Chris Roberts said the figures highlighted the significance of tourism to the region's economy.
"We know that tourism supports regional communities across New Zealand, driving regional economic growth and creating employment opportunities," he said.
In April, Tourism West Coast chief executive Jim Little said a combination of more international visitors arriving, more rooms available in Christchurch and increased marketing initiatives had led to the increase in visitor numbers and spend.
No comments:
Post a Comment