Review of flight training safety finds that the Civil Aviation Authority needs to keep better track of the qualifications held by flight instructors

A nearly three-year study into the safety of New Zealand flying training has found it doesn't appear to be getting more dangerous, but there isn't enough information to say for sure.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) on Thursday released its report into flying training safety, which is critical of the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA's) ability to provide information about pilots and their training.

However, while there is not enough information to say definitely whether flying training has become more dangerous, TAIC says flying training is probably just as safe as it is in Australia and the United States.

The inquiry was sparked by near misses and two midair training collisions between 2008 and 2010. Three people were killed at Paraparaumu and two near Feilding.

Fifty-four parties submitted to the inquiry on issues such as increasing aviation activity, training methods, funding and the English language abilities of foreign trainee pilots.

One submitter said some foreign pilots' English pronunciation was so poor it was difficult to understand what they were saying.

Another questioned whether they were even understanding their flying instructions fully and large schools, being paid to train them, could be releasing them before they were competent to fly.

However, the inquiry said they were only anecdotal accounts and apart from one instance, there was not enough information to say poor English was a danger.

The lack of information was a recurring theme in the TAIC report.

The authors said it was concerning the CAA could not supply details of flying instructors' qualifications, experience levels and age.

"General information of this nature is important and should be collected and analysed as a matter of practice."

TAIC recommended CAA review its data collection work, do more safety research and improve the way it collects information on pilot instructors.

It also recommended the CAA tighten pilot licensing requirements so all trainers meet the same standards.

CAA spokesman Mike Richards said his organisation got a copy of the TAIC report only two days ago. It would be going over the recommendations and be responding to them in due course.

It was too early to say if it agreed or disagreed with what TAIC was advocating.

Mr Richards said if CAA was to collect more data and do more research it would naturally cost more.

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