Tonga will continue to fly its Chinese-made MA60 aircraft as a New Zealand inspector’s report says the plane was correctly validated.

A draft of a World Bank report says the plane, gifted by China last year, wasn’t validated correctly, but Tongan authorities have cried foul saying they hadn’t been approached for their documentation.

The New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, says he takes safety very seriously and will maintain a travel safety advisory until the World Bank report is officially published.

The Tongan deputy prime minister, Samiu Vaipulu, says the World Bank had no authority to call for the plane to be grounded.

“We will still fly the plane, we will still fly the aircraft. They have no authority to talk about civil aviation matters.”

An independent New Zealand inspector says the MA60 was correctly validated and Tongan authorities are optimistic New Zealand will soon change its position.

Vaipulu, and the chief executive of the Civil Aviation Division (CAD), Vili Cocker, say they were surprised and upset the World Bank didn’t approach them to see their paperwork on the plane’s validation.

New Zealand’s foreign minister, Murray McCully, has maintained a travel advisory over the plane and suspended tourism funding for Tonga when Real Tonga began flying it and New Zealand company Chathams Pacific was edged out of the Tongan domestic market.

However, Peter Clark, a New Zealand aviation commentator, strongly believes the plane is unsafe because the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority, and other western authorities, haven’t certified it.

“If China wants to sell aircraft into our market and those markets they have to meet requirements and prove certification to regulatory authorities. If they can’t, that aircraft is not certifiable,” Clarke maintains.

But the plane doesn’t fly in New Zealand, and according to the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority, there’s no reason for New Zealand to validate it.

In exceptional circumstances, New Zealand may have an issue with a plane New Zealanders are flying on in foreign countries, but the MA60s fly in Indonesia and China, and McCully has not issued travel advisories for those countries.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation, or ICAO, allows small countries to validate planes if they are type certified by countries with the resources to do so, and Tonga has always maintained it has done this.

An experienced New Zealand pilot, Rodger McCutcheon, says he is interested in resolving the matter, and arranged last month for New Zealand pilots to test fly the plane, if that would help.

He says Clark’s position means New Zealand shouldn’t trust any plane that China is flying.

“Are we doubting, are we saying that the Chinese aviation industry is not capable of – you know – do they really put an aeroplane back in the air that may be unsafe?

“I don’t think they do. I think China are trying to establish a multi-billion dollar aviation industry and the reason why they are overly cautious and why they are sensitive is because they want to be seen to do the right thing and do the right thing.”

China has an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration and says it follows the guidelines of ICAO, and it has a bilateral agreement with Tonga.

The Chinese manufacturer, AVIC, strongly criticised the World Bank report and now the bank seems set to withdraw the references to the MA60.

Chinese officials were in Tonga last week, and McCutcheon says they are not happy it has come to this.

A New Zealand aircraft inspector, Peter Williams, reviewed the validation process on the weekend and says he sees no issue with the way Tonga accepted China’s certification.

“I’ve reviewed the certification process for the MA60 based on the documents supplied. I believe the aircraft was correctly certified by the manufacturer that was correctly issued by the Tongan CAD.

“Since the aircraft has been operating in Tonga there’s been no cases of incidents or maintenance defects.”

The New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, has met Samiu Vaipulu in Tonga this week and Vaipulu raised the issue of the travel advisory, saying it has hurt tourism business in Vava’u for the last two years.

“We’ll take it step-by-step– but right now at least they are acknowledging the facts about the type of certification and once we settle that I am sure we’ll be able to address the travel advisory soon after.”

The World Bank says it won’t comment until the report is published in mid-June, but should the bank retract its original position on the MA60, it may be enough to keep the plane in the air, and convince New Zealand to say that it’s safe.