Pilots are demanding answers after they were cleared to land in floodwaters of an unknown depth at Auckland Airport during the city's torrential rain last week.
At one stage the rainfall was so great water was being measured with a worker’s boot.
An official investigation is already underway after one plane coming in from Melbourne smashed through six landing lights and popped a tyre, forcing the runway to close.
Speaking with Tova O'Brien on Monday morning, Aviation commentator Irene King said further investment in Auckland's travel technology could have helped with the incident.
"The pilots would have had pretty reasonable data… but what they don't have is any good on-the-spot understanding, appreciation of what's happening on the runway," King said.
"There is some technology around that Auckland has not invested in that can provide some more accurate measurements of that.
"Clearly, that would have helped a lot in this scenario, one suspects."
King told O'Brien the inquiry into the Melbourne incident will be thorough.
"We think aviation is so safe and then we get into very tricky and usual scenarios and it's fine judgement lines going on here," King said.
"The good thing is, they always get pretty accurate facts of the matter because there's so much data around.
"Clearly it was within Air New Zealand's operational parameters."
While there are ways to help improve travel safety and make sure incidents like this don't happen again, King said it is also important to acknowledge and praise the pilots for their landing without guidance on runways.
"Aircraft do go off runways when they have adverse climatic conditions being encountered, so landing can be tricky in these circumstances, no question about that," King told O'Brien.
"The pilots did extraordinarily well to bring it back as they did.
Listen to the full interview between Irene King and Tova above.
You can also download the full interview on the Tova podcast, and listen on the go.
