Air New Zealand Flight 988

Air New Zealand Flight 988 was a scheduled Air New Zealand sightseeing flight that started operating in 1982.

On 16 April 2018, the route was flown by the Knight, a DC-10-30.

Aircraft
The aircraft operating was an McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, manufactured in early 1979 by McDonnell Douglas at Long Beach Airport, California. At the time of the accident, it was 39 years old and flown an total of 56,937 flight hours. It was registered as N59839 during an certification test, but re-registered as ZK-NZT when it was delivered to Air New Zealand in August 1979. Once, it was photographed previously for Air New Zealand postcards and merchandise.

Crew
Three flight crew and seventeen cabin crew members manned Flight 988.

The captain, Ryan Wilson, had been an Air New Zealand employee since 1995. He qualified to fly the DC-10 in 2003 and had passed his proficiency checks. The NTSB report mentioned that other flight crew that had flown with Connors prior to the accident described him as a laid back pilot who was also known for his by-the-book procedures. Wilson had logged over 11,000 hours of flight time, 2,000 of which had been in the DC-10.

Flight 988's first officer was David Saurens, age 34. Air New Zealand captains who flew with Saurens described him as "very observant and alert", and calling him an "extremely professional first officer". Saurens had logged 4,300 flight hours, including 1,000 in the DC-10.

The flight engineer, Calvin Williams, had logged 2,000 hours of flight time, including 800 hours in the DC-10. Fellow Air New Zealand employees described him as a "good pilot" with "superb knowledge of the DC-10".