Director pleads not guilty after fatal chopper accident
A company and director connected to a fatal helicopter crash in a remote part of Otago have entered not guilty pleas.
Alister John Lister, a director of Milton-based Lister Helicopters Ltd, and his company faced multiple charges first laid by the Civil Aviation Authority in November 2022.
Dan Harrison, 36, was reported missing on Thursday, September 16, 2021, after flying from the company’s base in Milton to Alexandra in a Eurocopter AS350 B3, more commonly known as a ‘Squirrel’.
The crash site was discovered on the Lammerlaw Range above the Waipori River, about 10 kilometres north of Lawrence.
The initial charges against Lister, who in court documents was listed as chief pilot/ director, was that he permitted the helicopter ‘’to be operated in a manner which cause unnecessary danger to any other person, namely Daniel Harrison’’.
That danger was from piloting the helicopter in a night cross-country flight, with the company also facing the same charge.
Lister and the company also faced health and safety charges over failing to prohibit night-time cross-country flying for Harrison, who did not hold the appropriate licence or rating, and communicating to clients when it could commence frost-fighting operations.
That comes after a 2024 report from the Transport Accident Investigation Commission which concluded the pilot becoming disoriented in darkness and cloud, combined with being out of practice in instrument skills.
Before Judge Jim Large in the Dunedin District Court yesterday morning, not guilty pleas were entered on all charges for Lister, and the company.
A jury trial was elected.