Pilot grounded after jibe at PM

news24.com ^ | September 5, 2005

[billorites]

Wellington - An Air New Zealand pilot was grounded on Thursday after telling his passengers that Prime Minister Helen Clark was to blame for delaying their take-off from Wellington.

The pilot, who was not named, said over the plane's public address system that Clark's bag was being removed because she was transferring to a charter flight and added: "So much for supporting the national airline, eh?"

But he was misinformed, and Clark was not amused when she boarded the plane and was told of his comments by cabinet minister Trevor Mallard, especially upon learning that opposition leader Don Brash, her main challenger in this month's general election, was also on board.

Invited to go to the cockpit, she gave the pilot a piece of her mind and later received a telephoned apology from the airline's chief executive.

"Its an issue of fairness," she said. "The whole plane was told that I, as prime minister, was responsible for the delay. That just wasn't true, and I am entitled to fair treatment like any other passenger."

The government owns more than 80% of Air New Zealand, and the pilot was stood down while he writes a letter of apology to his boss.

[billorites]

and this account from the September 5, 2005 AvWeb...

Touchy PM Triggers Airborne Political Storm

Take a wisecracking pilot, a cranky prime minister and a planeload of impatient passengers (some of them the PM's political rivals) and you get a political scandal, New Zealand style. There's no equivalent of Air Force One for New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark so she flies commercial. On a recent Air New Zealand flight to Christchurch, the PM was among the last few passengers to board and the pilot quipped that it was not the way to show support for the national airline. Most passengers took it for the joke that it was. But not Clark and her cronies. She went to the cockpit to give the pilot a prime ministerial dressing-down and the pilot went on the PA system to apologize, to the amazement and bemusement of the other passengers. Clark insisted she wasn't the last to board and it wasn't her fault the plane was delayed. "I said I felt that the comments were unfair and that I had not held up the plane. I accepted his apology and, for my part, I leave it there," Clark told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The little fracas might have stayed within the aluminum tube but for the fact it contained dozens of other politicians and about half the country's political press corps. And now Clark is being criticized for her "bossy boots" reaction to the pilot's comments and her political foes are mocking her thin skin. "The Prime Minister of this country ought to be a little less arrogant," said Opposition Leader Dr. Don Brash. "I feel sorry for the pilot. He obviously got a flea in his ear from the prime minister." The pilot was also suspended for two days and the airline made a public apology. In Clark's defense, being the prime minister of New Zealand comes with some irritations that no U.S. president will ever have to endure. Imagine the president's motorcade being pulled over by the police and his driver charged with dangerous driving. It happened to Clark a couple of weeks ago as her police driver raced to get her to a rugby match on time.

[Jet Jaguar]

Ping?

[NZerFromHK]

Ping!

(As we countdown to the date when Dear Helen is no longer the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Oh well, there is a useless post in New York that she could do after the election defeat. Oil money, hint, hint.)

[Aeronaut]

[Heatseeker]

National is about 4.5% out, right? Maybe this will help bring them up even more.

BTW, Where does New Zealand First party stand in the political spectrum?

[NZerFromHK]

The lead is now 8% according to the government-owned TV1 poll, so there is more than half the ahance Labour will lose.

New Zealand First is roughly speaking like the paleoconservatives in America. Conservative socially in terms of race-culture-identity, and like to spend money on superanniuation (social security in US terms), and agreeing with lots of tariffs. Winston Peters is like the Pat Buchanan of New Zealand. I once gave a New Zealand First policy platform to a liberal Democrat on another forum and he was so horrified of NZF that he screamed "This strikes me as a fascist party!". I didn't tell him he became the Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1996 on that platform. ;-)

New Zealand politics, like much of Europe and Britain, has its extremes. Sure, their Left are very powerful, but the pendulum swings and their paleoconservatives is much more powerful than their US counterparts.

[patriciaruth]

Pilot blew it.

Wasn't professional behavior.

Deserves a reprimand, and should apologize.

Has nothing to do with whether one agrees or disagrees with the P.M.

One should be able to take a plane flight without having to listen to the pilot making disparaging remarks about someone.

[leadpenny]

Yep.

[Heatseeker]

Thanks for the info! I'll root for ACT and Destiny NZ instead then.

[Fred Nerks]

...just thinkin'...or, they could put the UN in New Zealand...?

[NickatNite2003]

I don't know...a reprimand maybe...but this sure looks
like Clark abused the power of her office to
carry out a nasty piece of personal vengance.

[NZerFromHK]

They should put the UN inside Waikato University in Hamilton. Waikato which has the reputation of being the most left-leaning academy in New Zealand - the former Attorney-General Margaret Wilson was a lecturer at the Law Faculty there before she was the President of Labour Party and became the AG in 1999.

[NZerFromHK]

To paraphrase an old article from my alma matar's (Auckland University) student paper published in the 2000 US presidential election, the US Democrats is in between Labour and National, while the US Republican is more like ACT plus a bit of Destiny New Zealand.

Now flip around and you can understand how politics in New Zealand goes.

[rawhide]

This woman is so touchy and owes the pilot an apology for her irrational outburst, at what was likely a comment said in jest! Even if not said in jest, to blow off steam at something like this, instead of letting your advisors handle it, will only bring your ill will. I do not know anything about her, but she seems looney to me.

[bill1952]

Touchy, touchy, touchy.

Can you imagine what would happen if any leading republican acted in such a manner?

Let alone, should Bush ever do such a thing.
The MSM would go ballistic.

[Heatseeker]

I gathered it was something like that by perusing their web sites. Good luck for your choice in 11 days!

[cardinal4]

The PM needs to chill. If she cant take a jibe like that, how is she going to react when a Jihadist detonates himself in downtown Auckland?

[patriciaruth]

Clark would have earned more points if she had gone up and introduced herself and laughed about his jibe, and allowed him then to correct his address to the other passengers. That would have been class.

That notwithstanding, the pilot was clearly in the wrong.

[Oztrich Boy]

There's no equivalent of Air Force One for New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark so she flies commercial.

Not correct. the RNZAF may have got rid of its combat wing, but it still maintains a couple of Boeing 757s for moving The Leaderette.

[Aussie Dasher]

She gave the pilot a piece of her mind?

There can't be too much left....