Sure that stories dont escape them. Every day a storm of views. How can you fully understand the impact unless you heard angles you hadnt considered. Consider this, antonio mora brings you smart conversation that challenges the status quo. Stories that matter to you. Hi, my name is jonathan betz, and im from dallas, texas, and im an anchor for Al Jazeera America. I started in a Small Television station in rural arkansas. Its a part of the country that often gets overlooked. But there are a lot of fascinating people there, a lot of fascinating stories there. I like that al jazeera will Pay Attention to those kinds of places. What drew me to journalism is i like the idea that we are documenting history. Al jazeera documents it like none other. And to be a journalist, and to be part of a team like that . Thats an incredible blessing. What happens when social media uncovers unheard and fascinating news stories . They share it on a stream. Would probably be very good at that also. That is it for aljazeera america. Schwartz Martyn Stacey has also been campaigning for tighter controls on adventure tour operators. Schwartz ballooning may appear to be the gentlest of extreme sports but this is a four tonne aircraft with more power than many a light plane and no brakes. A pilot can take the craft up or down but direction is determined by the wind. Martyn stacey its a Magical Experience flying balloons and at different altitudes you get different wind directions and thats how you can control your balloon. Schwartz reading the weather correctly and erring on the side of caution is critical. Martyn stacey i have one rule in ballooning, my rule is id rather be on the ground wishing im in the air than in the air wishing im on the ground. Schwartz there was a balloon that went into the top of trees. Is that something which happens to everybody at some stage because of freak gusts . Martyn stacey i suspect if every balloonist is honest, they will hit trees at some stage and its a learning curve. Now that was a commercial flight. Conditions most probably outside what they should have been in. Schwartz did you fly that day . Martyn stacey no, we cancelled our flight that day. Schwartz did other balloon companies fly . Martyn stacey yeah there was about four or five or us all said no to flying. Schwartz the company that did fly and clipped trees coming in to land was balloon adventures, up up and away ltd. Dean ragg im not surprised. Schwartz the company says it was a minor incident, there was no damage done. Dean ragg no, but the potential was hugely there for a major incident. Schwartz dean ragg is a former chief pilot of balloon adventures up up and away. When he left the company in march 2010, he took his safety concerns to the Civil Aviation authority. Four months later the caa grounded the companys seven balloons for seven weeks. It said the operation presented a threat to peoples safety. Dean ragg [balloon pilot] i started looking into rules, regulations, maintenance and all that sort of stuff and i found a few things that needed being tidying up. Then i went through the process of tidying those particular spots up with a little difficulty. Schwartz one of the two directors of balloon adventures up up and away is pilot Chris Johnson. As a young army officer he was Court Martialled for theft. In 2004 he was convicted under the Civil Aviation act after providing air investigators with what the judge called a bogus document. Dean ragg ive known him since i was eighteen. A long time. Schwartz he taught you to fly. Dean ragg he taught me to fly aeroplanes, yep originally, yep. Schwartz so what kind of a person is he . Dean ragg a very interesting one. Very intelligent, very clever, very charismatic. He could sell ice cubes to eskimos, that sort of person. Yeah he was a very good friend up until i started working for him and then our friendship fell apart. Schwartz why was that . Dean ragg just through these problems i was having as chief pilot. Schwartz dean ragg says Chris Johnson wanted to put four balloons in the air on a day of thick fog. Dean ragg we got out to the launch site, it was foggy. So you couldnt even see to the other end of the launch site. He said, oh it doesnt matter, well be fine. Im like no, look this isnt legal. Were outside the legal parameters of flying. In which case he said well well wait and see what happens. So we did, we waited for about half an hour and the conditions got worse and then i said well thats it. The flights over. Were going home. Schwartz not flying, potentially cost the company thousands of dollars in lost fares. Dean ragg my experience has told me theyre very money orientated. The profit comes first. Schwartz Chris Johnson is also a part owner and operator of balloon adventures emirates. In april 2010, one of the companys balloons made a fast and heavy landing. Two passengers were killed, a crew member was paralysed and later died. The company was cleared of any wrongdoing and a conviction against the pilot was later quashed, but the aviation regulator found that the balloon had been launched in marginal weather after an earlier take off was aborted due to high winds. Peter kollar adventure tourism is the Fastest Growing sector within tourism. Schwartz Chris Johnsons partner in the emirates business is peter kollar. Hes also a former director of balloon adventures up up and away. In 1995, peter kollar was flying for up up and away when his balloon came down at sea off christchurch. Three tourists drowned. Is it a company that has been of concern to the Civil Aviation authority . Rex kenny any company that has a conviction is of concern. Schwartz rex kenny believes theres no longer anywhere to hide for unsafe operators. He oversees adventure aviation for new zealands Civil Aviation authority the caa. All adventure aviation businesses must now be certified by the caa. Previously, the authority could act only against pilots and aircraft. Rex kenny so the new adventure aviation regulations allow us to actually suspend the operating certificate and therefore put the company the on ground if necessary in the worst cases. Schwartz Martyn Stacey supports the new regulation. His company was among the first to be audited and certified. Schwartz the new regulations. Will they get rid of any cowboys in the industry . Martyn stacey well hopefully, hopefully we havent had cowboys in the industry but weve had people whove sort of pushed the law to its limits. Director Chris Johnson declined an interview on camera, but spoke with me from dubai. He says hes never pressured any of his pilots to fly when they didnt want to and that safety is paramount. He also told me he welcomes the tighter regulations. Schwartz so if you have somebody who is a director of a company who has been convicted under the Civil Aviation act, is that person then deemed to be not a fit and proper person . Rex kenny not necessarily. Wed be looking to see that there was a compliance history that showed that if there was a mistake made, that over time that wasnt repeated. More news. Fracking change what you pay for water each month . Have you thought about how Climate Change can affect your grocery bill . Can Rare Minerals in china affect your cell phone bill . Or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium . Ill make the connections from the news to your money real. Schwartz the new Zealand Government insists its adventure Tourism Industry is safe. Theres no argument from Scott Ashcroft and his thrill seeking tour mates. Done with bungy theyre now onto jet boating and zip lining. Have you ever have any fears about safety doing any of these adventure activities. James keown no not at all, not theyre all well organised, run by people who obviously know what theyre doing so. I guess at some point youve got to just leave it to them and trust them. Schwartz but the government admits industry selfregulation has been far from perfect, so its tightening controls across all adventure activities. Chris coker [victims father] they change the rules and bring out new regulations as if to say theyve fixed the problem. The problem is not fixed. The problem was never a shortage of rules and regulations, the problem is no enforcements. Nobody is scared, theres nobody held to account. Schwartz chris coker believes the only way to truly hold Adventure Companies to account is to allow accident victims and their families to sue for damages something which is almost impossible under the countrys accident compensation regime. If youre a foreigner holidaying in queenstown and you have an accident, its more than likely youll wind up here, at the local hospital or there are any number of doctors, physiotherapists and other Health Professionals about town. But no matter who you see, or what treatment you receive, itll be paid for by the new zealand taxpayer. Thats because under the countrys unique accident compensation scheme, anyone whos injured in new zealand be it resident or visitor is covered. The tradeoff is that you cant sue for damages. Professor susan watson says the system, when introduced in 1974 was revolutionary, taking the lawyers and the lottery out of accident compensation. Professor susan watson if you got hit by a rich person you might get a Million Dollars compensation, if you got knocked down by a car driven by someone with no assets then you wouldnt get any compensation at all. So there was sort of a desire to have a system which New Zealanders perceived to be fairer where everyone would get compensation regardless of fault and regardless of who caused the injury. Schwartz the universal scheme covers people for accidents at home, work and play. Yet ironically it may make accidents more likely. Research conducted by auckland universitys commercial Law Department suggests that without the threat of being sued, an organisation can get complacent with disastrous results. Professor susan watson new zealand has four times the rate of workplace fatalities than the uk and twice the rate of workplace fatalities than australia. Schwartz and what do you put that down to . Professor susan watson well all i can say is that it doesnt disprove our idea that because corporations lack conscience, without the ability to sue the corporation for accidents, there isnt an incentive, there isnt sufficient incentive for them to put health and safety regimes or appropriate health and safety regimes in place. Schwartz the deadly pike river mine disaster in 2010 and the catastrophic building collapses in the christchurch earthquakes have shone a spotlight on new zealands workplace safety, or lack of it. The government has ordered an independent review. Professor watson says thought should be given to introducing a charge of corporate manslaughter as part of a raft of changes. Professor susan watson what new zealand perhaps could consider bringing back the right to sue for health and safety breaches in workplaces. Another option is to beef up the level of fines for health and safety breaches in workplaces. In australia, the maximum fine for a corporation breaching health and safety is two Million Dollars in new zealand its five hundred thousand dollars. Schwartz bungy entrepreneur aj hackett believes people should have the right to sue for gross negligence. But he says litigation can go too far, like the time a woman tried to sue his las vegas operation when she got wet hair on a jump. Aj hackett every day working in america we had the threat of our business being closed down through completely ridiculous litigation, and it was a major, major issue and in new zealand we can concentrate on actually providing a very safe environment and a fun time for our customers. For me, i like the idea of if you want to do something, you take responsibility for your own actions. Schwartz across new zealands adventure Tourism Industry, theres little enthusiasm for ditching the countrys no fault accident liability system. Rex kenny you only have to look at the us where people can get the pants sued off them and yet they still have accidents. Steve latham i reckon that weve got a culture that were going to take it to a professional level without over regulating it and trying to sue each other and all that carry on. Well always keep it a little bit edgy and thats what people come over here for. If youre sort of worried about getting your knees dirty then maybe you should go to a different place. New zealand is not scared of going its own way, whether in being the first to give women the vote or in standing up to the us over nuclear policy. But in selling adventure, perception is everything. People want a safe scare. Schwartz the challenge for new zealand is in tightening the safety net without taking the adventure out of adventure tourism. [[voiceover]] every sunday night, Al Jazeera America presents gripping films from the worlds top documentary directors. Thank god i didnt suffer what he had to go through. Next sunday, the premiere of google and the world brain. This is the opportunity of our generation. [[voiceover]] it would be the worlds greatest library under one digital roof. But at what cost . Google could hold the whole world hostage. [[voiceover]] Al Jazeera America presents google and the world brain. Hello, and welcome to al jazeera. Our top stories at this hour. This International Norm cannot be violated without consequences. Secretary of state kerry said the u. S. Is now convinced that syria has resorted to using chemical weapons. As the white house considers a response. U. N. Inspectors search the attack site near damascus for evidence of chemical warfare. I would be gone if i live there had, i would be gone. Homes and wildlife are at risk as fires burn through Yosemite National security. Schools
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