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Winston Peters alleges cover-up over Interislander crash (www.rnz.co.nz)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters has alleged a cover-up at KiwiRail over the grounding of the Aratere last month.

There were allegations from coalition government partner New Zealand First earlier this week the accident last month happened after "someone put the autopilot on, went for a coffee, and then couldn't turn the autopilot off in time when that someone came back".

Party leader Peters on Thursday morning appeared to distance himself from the claim, before doubling-down on it.

"But here's the point - at the moment we heard this story, it was clear as daylight that something dramatically had gone wrong, that shouldn't have gone wrong, and we find out it was on autopilot." Peters said the party had sources on the boat itself, which relayed the 'coffee break' claim.

"I am the acting prime minister, and the reality is that we are wanting to hear the truth, but we don't want to delay any longer. And in a way, you can say I'm asking KiwiRail [to] front up - right here right now."

Labour leader Chris Hipkins was unimpressed with New Zealand First posting the claim to social media, rather than sharing whatever information it had with investigators.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Ok so someone made a mistake and applied an auto-pilot command early.....it happens.

It appeared from that point, a crew member had inadvertently hit an execute button, causing the vessel to alter its course in a way it would do around about one nautical mile further along. As this happened early and steered it towards the shore.

As an automation engineer, my first though is why is this even able to happen? Once you are outside the area where you need a local pilot to guide you, shouldn't the system check the GPS location to ensure that the commands make sense. This should be easy to check!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm also very surprised the helm doesn't override the autopilot, or cancel itself if there is a conflict, in much the same way aircraft autopilot or cruise control does.

This really does sound like an appalling design to me.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Exactly, industry standard is for local stop (HMI stop) to override any and all start commands unless there is a very good reason to not stop that device.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Maybe its that if someone is at the helm, it’s not going to be accidentally knocked. Ships helms (traditionally, I’ve not been in a large modern ship) aren’t in confined spaces specifically designated for operating the ship. They’re just a wheel on the bridge.

If it’s on autopilot, nobody is at the helm, and someone walks past, gets bumped or whatever into the helm. You don’t want the boat yeeting itself into land.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I suspect they went they way of boeing - give the pilot as much control as possible, rather than airbus - remove the pilot as much as possible.

Not familiar with these boats and their upgrades, but remember they are 25 or so years old.