Charges over flights for stranded tourists

CHRISTCHURCH: An experienced pilot who flew Chinese holidaymakers over flooding roads and closed bridges so they could make their international flight home allegedly breached Civil Aviation Authority rules, a court has been told.

The pilot is accused of not having the right paperwork after chartering a small aircraft to help out a Chinese tour guide, and get some tourists travelling in the South Island to Christchurch International Airport in time for their flight out of the country.

Although the pilot has more than 2500 flight experiences and held a category B flight instructor rating, he did not have an air operator certificate aviation document that allowed him to fly the tourists.

Both the pilot and Air Rangitata Ltd were charged by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and have appeared in the Christchurch District Court.

The company pleaded guilty yesterday to one representative charge of acting without a necessary aviation document.

A summary of facts which outlines the offending says that on December 7, 2019, the Rangitata region, about 45km north of Timaru, was put into a state of emergency.

The Rangitata River had burst its banks after heavy rainfall, leading to widespread flooding, road closures and slips.

That day, a Christchurch tour guide allegedly contacted the pilot to ask if he could help get some of her clients caught up in the road closures to Christchurch for a China Southern Airlines flight scheduled to leave the next day.

‘‘He replied that he could not assist, as he . . . did not have the necessary qualifications/certification to carry out the requested air transport operation flights,’’ the court summary of facts says.

But the next day, the pilot, whose case is still before the courts, is said to have called Air Rangitata Ltd about hiring an aircraft and the company agreed.

He picked up the plane and allegedly made 10 flights that day in and out of Timaru Airport.

Each passenger was charged about $200 for a oneway flight, the CAA says.

Later on December 8, 2019, a Taupo tour operator called the pilot and explained that he had a group of 32 people stuck on the south side of the Rangitata River, who needed to get to Christchurch to catch a flight on December 9.

He allegedly agreed, with a price of about $115 per passenger, to be invoiced through Air Rangitata.

The pilot is then said to have started transporting the tour group across the river.

The CAA alleges the pilot omitted to record any of the flights in his pilot logbook.

When the pilot was spoken to, he admitted ‘‘several flights as costshare for people that he knew’’.

He allegedly told them that the aircraft had been hired for $400 per hour. The money was going to Air Rangitata and that he received part of that cost as a costsharing flight.

Air Rangitata, meanwhile, accepted that it had hired the plane to the pilot at a rate of $215 per hour plus GST, but maintained that his subsequent actions had nothing to do with it, viewing it as a private hire.

The company will be sentenced for its part, in the Christchurch District Court on March 31. — The New Zealand Herald