Qualla: Airwork Flight 23 https://qualla.com/airwork-flight-23 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:28 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/c/5/b/airwork-flight-23-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Airwork Flight 23 https://qualla.com/airwork-flight-23 Airwork Flight 23: Introduction https://qualla.com/airwork-flight-23/ Photo credit Transport Accident Investigation Commission, CC BY 4.0. The cabin was packed with palletized mail, not passengers, which is why no one outside the aviation community remembers Airwork Flight 23. On the night of May 3, 2005, the Fairchild Metroliner was running late on a New Zealand Post cargo run from Auckland to Woodbourne. Captain Clive Adamson, 43, had 6,500 hours in his logbook and was a line check captain -- the pilot who evaluated other pilots. First Officer Anthony Drummond, 41, had 2,300 hours total but only 70 on the Metroliner, which he had started flying earlier that year. What killed them was not inexperience, nor weather, nor mechanical failure in any conventional sense. It was a fuel imbalance, a trim wheel, and an autopilot that quit without warning.

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Image: Transport Accident Investigation Commission | CC BY 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/c/5/b/airwork-flight-23-wp/rc5b-airwork-flight-23-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Airwork Flight 23: Thirty-Six Minutes Late https://qualla.com/airwork-flight-23/ Photo credit Transport Accident Investigation Commission, CC BY 4.0. The flight was scheduled for 9:00 PM but delayed while cargo was loaded. During the wait, the pilots ordered an extra 570 liters of fuel and told the refueler to put it all in the left wing tank -- a departure from company procedure, which required fuel to be split evenly between...

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Image: Transport Accident Investigation Commission | CC BY 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/c/5/b/airwork-flight-23-wp/rc5b-airwork-flight-23-thirty-six-minutes-late.mp3 0:06 2 full Airwork Flight 23: Forty-Seven Seconds https://qualla.com/airwork-flight-23/ Photo credit Transport Accident Investigation Commission, CC BY 4.0. What happened next unfolded with the terrible precision that accident investigators later reconstructed from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data. Adamson initiated the cross-flow procedure to balance the fuel, then told Drummond to "sit on left ball and trim it accordingly...

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Image: Transport Accident Investigation Commission | CC BY 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/c/5/b/airwork-flight-23-wp/rc5b-airwork-flight-23-forty-seven-seconds.mp3 0:06 3 full Airwork Flight 23: The Autopilot Lets Go https://qualla.com/airwork-flight-23/ Photo credit Transport Accident Investigation Commission, CC BY 4.0. The investigation by New Zealand's Transport Accident Investigation Commission pieced together what the pilots could not have seen in the darkness. The autopilot's servo had reached its torque limit trying to compensate for the rudder trim input and disengaged -- silently handing...

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Image: Transport Accident Investigation Commission | CC BY 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/c/5/b/airwork-flight-23-wp/rc5b-airwork-flight-23-the-autopilot-lets-go.mp3 0:06 4 full Airwork Flight 23: The Corrections That Followed https://qualla.com/airwork-flight-23/ Photo credit Transport Accident Investigation Commission, CC BY 4.0. Aviation safety advances through grief, and Flight 23 was no exception. Within weeks, the operator issued a notice requiring fuel to be split evenly between tanks before engine start. The company checklist was amended to include a "cross flow closed" check during lineup and appro...

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Image: Transport Accident Investigation Commission | CC BY 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/c/5/b/airwork-flight-23-wp/rc5b-airwork-flight-23-the-corrections-that-followed.mp3 0:06 5 full