Dash 8 pilot recounts injuries

Ansett pilot Garry Sotheran suffered a fractured skull when his aircraft crashed near Palmerston North in 1995, a High Court jury was told yesterday.

Sotheran, 45, who has denied four charges of manslaughter and three of unlawfully injuring passengers in the crash, said he also suffered a fractured shoulder and ribs, a chest injury and lacerations.

In Palmerston North Hospital he was placed in an induced coma for several days, before being transferred to Christchurch, where he lived. Subsequently, he suffered anxiety attacks and stress.

Sotheran told the High Court at Palmerston North that in the year after the crash he gradually began to remember what happened on the flight.

He retained his pilot's licence, but never flew for Ansett again. He and co-pilot Barry Brown were among about 40 pilots the airline made redundant in 1999.

During cross-examination, Sotheran said he had been flying in a professional, safe and responsible manner.

He could not say where things went wrong but in retrospect would have flown differently by going into a holding pattern and trying another approach to the airport.

Sotheran agreed that after being charged he described police allegations as "outlandish and without factual substance."

The Crown alleges he was criminally negligent by failing to maintain the height of the aircraft after becoming distracted by a problem with its landing gear.

The defence, led by Hugh Rennie, QC, said factors including severe weather and mechanical difficulties were the real causes of the crash into the ranges east of Palmerston North.

The trial, before Justice Warwick Gendall, is in its fifth week, and Sotheran is the first of about two dozen defence witnesses.



Ansett's instructions for operating Dash 8 aircraft meant pilots were prohibited from using some modern guidance equipment on approaching an airport, the court was told.

For example, an early lowering of the undercarriage fooled the ground proximity warning system into not giving a normal warning, Mr Rennie said.

The aircraft might have been saved if the proximity warning system had warned Sotheran, flying on instruments in cloud and wind, that the Dash 8 was approaching the ground. But the information came just four seconds before the crash.

The Crown alleges Sotheran failed to maintain height after becoming distracted by a problem with the undercarriage while approaching Palmerston North Airport.

Sotheran denies this. He flew the aircraft while co-pilot Barry Brown tried to get the alternative landing gear down, but they were still supposed to act as a team, monitoring each other.

- NZPA