Schwartz if you like a thrill, its easy to fall for new zealand. Steve latham kiwis love to bring people over here, show them their environment and try to scare. Scare people to death while theyre here laughs . Schwartz tour guide steve latham loves adventure. Hes made a life out of it. Steve latham i basically just left home when i was 17 and started hitchhiking around the country. Learnt a lot about new zealand while i was doing that, then wanted to carry on with that and somehow make a living out of just being a New Zealander, showing people how beautiful it was. Schwartz but new zealand has beauty with bite. Too often in recent years, adventure has turned to deadly misadventure. Queenslander, Scott Ashcroft is hoping that wont happen today. Steve latham its a very special day today isnt it . Why is it a very special day . Whose birthday is it . Scottys birthday and one thing about scotty is that hes scared of heights so as a birthday present we are going to throw him off a 134 metre bridge. What do we think of that idea . Tourists shout awesome schwartz so youre afraid of heights . Scott ashcroft i am, yep. Schwartz why are you going to jump off a bridge . Scott ashcroft i have no idea. I guess its good just to test yourself out a bit. Challenge yourself. Anna so youre going to be out on the edge like this, push off away from us as far as you can go, go in head first. Scott ashcroft yeah at the moment im not feeling too bad. Schwartz how many times have you been to the bathroom . Scott ashcroft a couple laughing schwartz two and a half Million People travel to new zealand each year. Nearly forty per cent will try at least one adventure activity. Steve latham how are you feeling . Scott ashcroft not good man. Steve latham okay man just breathe it in. Relax. Chill out. Just live in the moment okay . Just have one thing in mind and that is as soon as you get to that platform, youre jumping, youre not going to stop. Were jumping arent we . Scott ashcroft yeah. Steve latham jumping . Scott ashcroft yeah. Steve latham jumping. Go on. Happy birthday. Schwartz new zealands highest bungy jump is no cheap thrill. The 134 metre plunge costs about two hundred australian dollars, but jumpers say the experience is priceless. Steve latham okay man its show time. Here we go. Three. Two. One. Go aj hackett well i think the main thing is it opens up the doors for opportunity that people didnt think they could actually do and, you know, everybody walks away feeling really good about themselves and ready to take on other challenges and, you know, life is a big challenge and if you can take on some of these challenges, the rewards are huge. Schwartz surviving his 25th birthday is something Scott Ashcroft will never forget. Scott ashcroft i dont know, i just cant believe i actually did it. Its something i would never have done really so im pretty happy that i got through it. Schwartz New Zealander aj hackett pioneered commercial bungy and now runs jump sites around the world. He was inspired by the traditional vine jumpers of vanuatu and a lifetime love of playing with gravity. Aj hackett when the opportunity came up to play around with rubber, i just sort of started fantasizing about things that we couldnt do as kids and i thought well then theres some real possibilities here, we can jump a lot higher, you know . It could be a lot of fun. Schwartz ajs dive off the eiffel tower in paris in 1987 brought bungy to world attention and then the world to queenstown, when he and Henry Van Asch opened up their passion to paying customers. Today business is bigger than ever. Aj hackett weve jumped now just over two and a half million customers in 23 years and we havent killed anybody. Touch lots of wood. Schwartz queenstown is now recognised as the adventure capital of the world zorbing just one of the latest kiwi inventions. Tourism is one of new zealands most lucrative industries, earning 18 billion australian dollars a year thanks increasingly to adrenalin charged activities. But growth has come at a cost. Tvnz news report it would be all too late but still they try in a desperate bid to save the life of a woman stuck under the jet boat when it overturned. Tvnz news report [21 september 2009] the 21 year old was travelling with her boyfriend when they went on a mad dog trip on the kawarau river. She became trapped under the water against this rock; desperate attempts to rescue her alive unsuccessful. Chris jordan the appalling, the ridiculous way she died has just been very upsetting. You know it was just so preventable at every stage. Schwartz at least 50 adventure tourists have died in new zealand over the past 8 years. Adventure aviation has taken a particularly large toll. Tvnz news report. Super january 2012 tvnz news report it was all that remained when a hot air balloon caught on power lines and went up in flames near carterton. Eleven people on board were killed, including pilot lance hopping. Schwartz this years carterton balloon accident was new zealands worst aviation disaster since the 1979 mt erebus plane crash. Cause is still being determined, investigators have said the balloon was not airworthy and the pilot had cannabis in his system. Tvnz news report the scene of the tragic flight. The burnt out wreckage of the small aircraft with nine people on board lies at the end of fox glaciers airstrip. Schwartz only 16 months earlier, a skydiving plane crash killed 9 people, among them 24 year old briton, bradley coker. Ian mcclelland they did not comply with the rules and did not ensure the aircraft was being operated in accordance with the flight manual. Chris coker my sons death was entirely preventable. It was not an accident. It was an inevitable certainty that that was going to happen. Schwartz bradleys father, chris coker, is on a mission. Hes launched an Internet Campaign warning adventure tourists to stay away from new zealand. Schwartz chris coker says therell be more deaths unless new zealand overhauls its legal system to ensure adventure operators can be held to account. Chris coker my main concern is i really dont want another father in the world to get a knock on the door from the police to tell them their childs been killed. It will happen again, because of the law in new zealand, the fact that you cant sue anybody for negligence or wrongful death. You cant do that, so nobody is held to account. Its just not safe. Its allowing them to run dangerous operations and they do, and this is the result. They say they did it because they were trying to protect my children. They didnt protect my children, they traumatized them. Fault lines examines why so many native American Kids are caught in the Child Welfare system. Any time they see a social worker its like seeing a police officer. The Immediate Response is, theyre here to take my kids. From the Indian Perspective who sees this in terms of history, this is as about as adversarial as it gets. 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. On inside story, we bring together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hardhitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you. Audiences are intelligent what happens when social media uncovers unheard, fascinating news stories . They share it on the stream. Social media isnt an afterthought, it drives discussion across america. Al jazeera americas social media community, on tv and online. This is your outlet for those conversations. Post, upload and interact. Every night share undiscovered stories. 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