Witness: 'I'd never seen one take off at that angle'

A Pacific Blue pilot has denied careless flying charges after he was accused of breaching aviation regulations during a late takeoff from Queenstown a year ago. File photo / Brett Phibbs

A former Queenstown resident told the Queenstown District Court yesterday how he saw part of the underbelly and the cockpit of Pacific Blue flight 89 as it passed by him in "whiteout conditions''.

Robert Clark, a mechanic, who was in his vehicle in a street above Lake Wakatipu, also told Judge Kevin Phillips he had never seen an aircraft take off at that angle before.

Mr Clark was giving evidence during the third day of a defended hearing for the pilot of the flight, a 54-year-old Auckland man, who has name suppression.

He faces one charge of operating an aircraft carelessly, brought by the Civil Aviation Authority in April, stemming from the flight's departure from Queenstown Airport at 5.25pm on June 22, 2010, which the CAA alleges was past cut off for the evening civil twilight [ECT].

Mr Clark was driving from Frankton when it was "getting on to dusk'', after turning around at the the top of Andrews Rd he became aware of the plane taking off.

Low light and "what I would describe as whiteout conditions'' hindered a clear view of it.

"I'd never seen one take off at that angle before, quite honestly.

"Normally, they come out and climb, but this one sort of didn't.''

The aircraft did not follow the steep angle "that I would expect ... it just didn't look quite right''.

He watched it fly past him and continue east up the Frankton Arm before it banked left at an angle of "about 20 to 30 degrees'' near the Queenstown golf course.

It then flew back towards Jardine Park before Mr Clark lost sight of it.

Under cross examination, he confirmed to defence counsel Matthew Muir by "whiteout'' he meant a "very low cloud layer''.

St John office administrator Lynn Cain said she was outside her Douglas St property having a cigarette between 5.20pm and 5.25pm when she heard the "roar'' of the plane starting up.

She saw the plane "power off'' and sit under the cloud, something she had "never seen'' before.

Initially thinking "they were pushing to get out of town at that time of night'', she continued to watch, as she was "rather concerned''.

The weather had "closed in'', with a "misty cloud layer that appeared to get thicker as it went up'', while the "tail of the plane just seemed to be attached to the cloud''.

She stood on a stool outside to try to see the plane and remained outside after she had lost sight of it, listening, "until I knew it was well out of range from us ... east of the runway ... over the Shotover Delta''.

Queenstown boat skipper Max Perkins - also a pilot - told Judge Phillips he had emailed the CAA after reading reports of the incident online which he felt were "sensationalised''.

"It was when people were implying the plane was extremely low, below 1000ft and doing steep turns.''

He was parked on State Highway 6 near the runway and saw the plane take off, climb and then "level off underneath the cloud base''.

It flew east and then banked about 25 degrees, turning to proceed west towards Deer Park Heights, where he lost sight of it.

"I read an article online and ... I was spurred on by that just to tell the CAA what I saw, for what it was worth.

"I felt that it was being sensationalised in the media.''

The hearing continues today.