Skydiving crash that killed British backpacker blamed on lax aviation controls

Chaminda Senadhira, 33, the pilot who died, is accused of making wrong weight
and balance calculations before take-off.

“This is basic airmanship, taught to every student pilot,” the
report says.

“It is very sad that a critical element of preflight planning, which
should be second nature to any pilot, appears to have been done so poorly.”

The report also says the plane had been poorly modified after its original use
for agricultural aerial spraying.

It goes on to blame New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority for failing to
impose tight enough controls on the burgeoning adventure flights industry at
the time.

“The CAA’s oversight and surveillance of commercial parachuting were not
adequate to ensure that operators were functioning in a safe manner,”
it says.

Since the accident, the CAA has made significant changes to oversight and
regulations, including cutting the number of passengers who can be carried
in similar planes from eight to six.

Mr Coker, who was on a round-the-world tour, joined the flight to fulfil his
ambition of making a tandem skydiving jump harnessed to an instructor.

Friends paying tribute on Facebook described him as “living life to the
max”.

More than 100,000 tandem skydiving jumps are made each year in New Zealand,
where adventure tourism is a major foreign currency earner.

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