Air Freight NZ Flight 1
Convair CV-580 · Controlled flight into terrain
From Palmerston North Airport (PMR) to Christchurch International Airport (CHC)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Convair CV-580
- Aircraft type
- Convair CV-580
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- ZK-FTB
- Operator
- Air Freight NZ
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Palmerston North Airport (PMR)To Christchurch International Airport (CHC)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
On Air Freight NZ Flight 1 (flight number: AFZ001), on 31 July 1989 a Convair CV-580 cargo aircraft of Air Freight NZ, on the flight from Palmerston North Airport to Christchurch Airport with an intermediate stop at Auckland Airport, crashed shortly after take-off on the second leg of the flight. The three pilots on board were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
The aircraft took off from Palmerston North for the night-time cargo flight and arrived in Auckland at around 20:30. After the intermediate landing, the cargo was unloaded and the aircraft was loaded with 11 pallets of cargo for the onward flight to Christchurch. On the next leg to Christchurch, the pilot who had been observing on the first leg was to act as first officer. For departure the aircraft received clearance for runway 23. The take-off took place at 21:59. The aircraft climbed to a height of approx. 400 feet, when it entered a gradual descent and collided with the ground 387 metres beyond the end of runway 23 and 91 m to the left of the extended centreline. The aircraft then broke apart and its wreckage fell into the shallow waters of Manukau Harbour, located beyond the point of impact. All three crew members were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The first officer's attitude director indicator (ADI) of the Convair CV-580 in question had an intermittently occurring defect, but the aircraft and the instrument continued to be operated regardless of this defect, although according to the minimum equipment list for this aircraft type it was not permitted to conduct flights with an inoperative ADI. The first officer, who was flying the aircraft at the time of the accident, had been informed of the defect, which had occurred during the ferry flight of the aircraft from Canada to New Zealand and again later. A replacement part had already been ordered, but the repair had been postponed due to problems with its availability. The first officer's ADI had not been marked as defective.
New Zealand's Transport Accident Investigation Commission, which took over the investigation after the accident, considered the check captain's failure to monitor the aircraft's flight profile during the critical phase of the initial climb to be the probable cause of the accident.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Air-Freight-NZ-Flug 1” (revision 237088036, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Air-Freight-NZ-Flug 1
- Article
- Air-Freight-NZ-Flug 1
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 237088036 · 2023-09-06 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q113111007
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Air-Freight-NZ-Flug 1" (page 12297539, revision 237088036), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.