KEY POINTS:
The woman charged with wounding three people during a hijacking of a flight south from Blenheim has been committed for trial.
Asha Ali Abdille was remanded in custody until a pretrial conference in the High Court at Christchurch on February 13, when the trial date may be set.
The 34-year-old Somali woman faces a charge of hijacking, taking an offensive weapon on to an aircraft, and four charges of wounding or injuring with reckless disregard for safety.
The depositions hearing in front of John O'Hara and Bruce Dawson, justices of the peace, heard the evidence of the last of the witnesses yesterday. No witnesses were called by the defence.
A police officer on the scene at Christchurch Airport, Constable Nigel Barton, told the court he arrived at the aircraft as its back stairs were lowered. He said the passengers walked off the plane and then started running. They were told to stop and lie on the grass. He tended the pilot's injured hand until ambulance staff arrived.
When the armed offenders squad members escorted Abdille away from the plane, they handcuffed her and made her kneel down. They found a knife in her shoe and Mr Barton did a pat-down search of her.
In the car leaving the airport Abdille told Mr Barton she went easy on the pilot. She said: "He wouldn't listen to me. I should have killed the pilot earlier, I should have stabbed him. I am pregnant three months.
"The pilot kicked me six or seven times. I let him survive because of the other passengers."
Cross-examined by defence counsel Antony Shaw, Mr Barton said it was unusual for a policeman to pat down a woman, but the situation was unique. No policewoman was present and he did it to make sure nothing was there to endanger the accused, the officers or himself.
The officer in charge, Detective Donald Rayne, said he noticed a trail of blood from the steps of the plane across the tarmac.
He found a black-handled knife with what appeared to be blood on it and another steak knife on the floor in front of seat 1A.
He said several areas and seats in the plane had bloodstains, including the cockpit area and documents the pilots used.
Mr Rayne was asked by defence counsel Greg Gimblett where the contents of the cockpit voice recording device were, and he said he could not answer that question.
He confirmed that he had allowed the voice recorder to pass out of police custody when officers had finished their scene examination of the plane.
- NZPA
