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A pilot who crashed in the Southern Alps has told how he used a baseball cap to hold his scalp together as he trekked 5km to raise the alarm.
Auckland flight instructor Richard Bateman, 27, said he was undecided about leaving his student Nick Eagleson, 33, at the crash site near Mt Cook on Sunday.
"I wasn't sure of the extent of Nick's injuries or my own, also because it was late afternoon and once the sun goes down the Alps can become quite cold," he told Close Up last night.
"I really didn't see how I was going to get through."
Mr Bateman said he took Mr Eagleson's baseball cap. "I had to fold back the skin on my head ... It was bleeding quite a lot ... I put one of Nick's baseball caps on to hold it all in."
He also had a broken wrist and broken ribs.
Mr Bateman walked across steep rocky terrain to a musterer's hut, where he lit a fire to attract the attention of a rescue helicopter.
The pair were among 35 from the North Shore Aero Club on their annual flying tour of the South Island.
They diverted to the valley to practice and clipped the side of their aircraft, bounced and then crashed. Mr Eagleson suffered spinal injuries, a broken pelvis and cuts when the two-seater Robin R2120 aircraft went down.
Asked if he thought it may be too late for Mr Eagleson as he left to get help, Mr Bateman said: "It crossed my mind."
He was hoping search and rescue aircraft were on the way.
The crash had not put him off flying.
"I won't be able to go back to work for a few weeks because of the cast ... but I don't want to give it up."
Civil Aviation Authority inspectors, who are conducting an investigation into the crash, also spoke to Mr Bateman yesterday.
