Sex case pilot wins battle for job

Air Nelson. Photo / Paul Taylor

A pilot sacked for having sex with a flight attendant and drinking on an overnight stop has won a "relentless" legal battle to save his job.

Regional airline Air Nelson has exhausted its legal avenues after its decision to dismiss the pilot for "serious misconduct" was overruled.

The flight attendant, then 19, said she could not have consented to sex but her complaint to police did not result in a prosecution.

The Employment Relations Authority found the pilot's dismissal was justified. But the Air New Zealand subsidiary was ordered to reinstate him after the Employment Court ruled the airline's investigation into what happened on the overnight stop was "fundamentally flawed".

The airline finally asked the Court of Appeal for the right to challenge the Employment Court decision but has been rejected.

The pilot was not available for comment but his lawyer, John Haigh QC, told the Herald it was the end of what had been a "very sorry saga which has detrimentally affected, in a significant way, the pilot and his family".

"I think that Air New Zealand, as in most of its employment-related disputes, are relentless."

The Court of Appeal judgment said the pilot, his first officer and the flight attendant drank a "significant amount" in the pilot's hotel room on an unscheduled stopover in May 2008.

According to the pilot, he and the flight attendant fell asleep and when he awoke about 4am she was attempting to arouse him, which led to them having sex.

The flight attendant said she had no memory of the sex, and only realised it had occurred when she returned to her own hotel room. She did not think she would have willingly consented.

Air Nelson said the Court of Appeal finding highlighted the high threshold facing employers when trying to review judgments "believed to be erroneous".