Injured tourist recovering

A Swedish tourist injured in a Fly-By-Wire accident in Queenstown has undergone surgery on her upper body at Dunedin Hospital.

The 29-year-old woman was airlifted to hospital after being rescued on Thursday from the Tucker Beach site of the adventure ride, about 12km from Queenstown.

Queenstown police Detective Sergeant Grahme Bartlet said he spoke to hospital staff and was told the woman had undergone surgery, but her injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

Doctors were considering transferring the woman to Christchurch for further treatment.

The machine is believed to have malfunctioned, smashed into a handrail on the rooftop deck platform and crumpled to the ground.

Fly-By-Wire is a self-powered, rocket-shaped plane suspended on wires and can travel at speeds up to 145 km/h.

Mr Bartlet said he and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) engineers and investigators would be examining the scene and equipment. Operating the equipment was "very technical".

But preliminary inquiries showed the rocket, or pod, had not come adrift from the suspending wire, he said.

"We're getting experts in to examine the pulley system and equipment."

He would not estimate how fast the woman had been travelling before the crash.

After the passenger is strapped in, the pod is apparently lifted in a cradle to about 3m in the air. It is then towed backwards up to a launch pad, where the passenger releases a lever, letting the pod fly forwards on the wire.

Thursday's crash was Queenstown's seventh adventure accident, five of them in commercial operations, since July 30 this year.

Last month a winch failed on the same Fly-By-Wire and operations were suspended until the business modified a winch to OSH specifications.

OSH Southland service manager John Pannett could not say whether the accident was related to last month's winch component failure.

The operation has been shut down again, pending inspections and tests.

It could be several days before investigations were complete.

Fly-By-Wire director Neil Harrap was not available for comment.

A company spokesman said that "anything we say would be speculation".

No one was available at the business yesterday.

While the Queenstown operation has been shut down pending inspections and tests, the Paekakariki ride was open for business yesterday.

Staff at the Kapiti site said it had a "totally different" system and mechanics to the Queenstown ride.

Everyone involved in the business was "really hurting" about the accident.

Fly-By-Wire was invented by Neil Harrap of Wellington. Mr Harrap, the company's director, opened ventures in Queenstown and Texas after the launch of the Paekakariki ride in 1997. Mr Harrap was overseas yesterday.

All inquiries about the accident were directed to Queenstown, but the company's phones were not being answered.

- NZPA