Hawke's Bay crash pilot pays $10,000 to passenger he injured

Robin Langslow who was sentenced in the Hastings District Court has been banned from holding or obtaining a commercial or private pilot's licence for seven months. Photo / Paul Taylor

A remorseful pilot pledged to pay $10,000 to a passenger so severely wounded he wished to die after their plane slammed nose-first into the ground, shattering both men's bodies.

Robin Maxwell Langslow, 61, appeared for sentencing at the Hastings District Court yesterday and was banned from holding or obtaining a commercial or private pilot's licence for seven months by Judge Claire Ryan. He was also ordered to pay the large reparation amount to the plane's sole passenger, a hobbling and still recovering William Mackay.

Last month Langslow admitted one representative charge of failing to comply with his flying conditions and a single charge of placing his passenger in unnecessary endangerment when he tried to land a Cresco top-dressing plane on his Otane farm on February 4 last year.

After a 2010 heart attack, Langslow was not permitted to fly with passengers and only two weeks prior to the crash had unsuccessfully asked the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to relax the restrictions on his pilot's licence.

Despite the advice he continued to fly for Aerospread and continued to carry Mr Mackay, a Scot who had lived in New Zealand for 10 years, on his flights.

"I should never have been in that aircraft with that pilot," Mr Mackay, a formerly healthy, active outdoorsman said in a victim-impact statement.

Judge Ryan said Langslow, who had been a pilot for many years, deliberately misled his employer and decided to "withhold vital information" regarding his licence because he was worried about securing a job.

On that February morning, shortly after take-off, Langslow was ordered to return to the airstrip because of high winds at his client's property, but because of fog near the airstrip, he extended the downwind approach and crucially failed to maintain airspeed. Langslow had also placed the fuel-condition lever in an incorrect position, leaving the engine with less power and resulting in the plane lacking the acceleration needed to avoid a deer fence.

Judge Ryan said they were "fairly significant" errors for someone of Langslow's skill and experience.

The aircraft hit the fence and the propeller sliced through a gate, becoming entangled in the wires, before the plane's nose slammed into the ground and threw Langslow and Mr Mackay forward. The pair received gruesome injuries and were trapped in the aircraft, their feet "entangled" and shattered in the rudder pedals.

Mr Mackay, who walked into court on crutches yesterday, suffered a fractured spine, broken arm, broken fingers and badly broken lower legs. The bones in both his feet were shattered and his left knee almost ripped off, requiring reconstructive surgery.

Mr Mackay, who was in excruciating pain, said there were times he "wished he was dead" as he spent 69 days in hospital before being bed-ridden for 20 hours a day while recovering in Havelock North.

Langslow, who also now walks with a limp, broke several teeth, had a broken eye socket, cheekbone, fingers, a badly broken arm, broken hip, dislocated left ankle and shattered bones in the lower legs.

Judge Ryan said Langslow, who illegally flew on 14 occasions with a passenger, should, like all pilots, have engaged some humility and common sense.

Aerospread Ltd managing director Bruce Peterson said had he known about Langslow's licence restrictions he would have approached the CAA with the pilot and sought a solution.

Aerospread experienced "considerable financial loss" as a result of the crash and to date the total costs incurred by the company were about $500,000.

A CAA spokesman said the sentencing reflected the severity of the charges and came as a timely reminder to New Zealand pilots that the laws were in place to protect passenger and pilot safety.

"I think a message needs to be sent to the flying industry," said Judge Ryan, when sentencing Langslow.