Chopper pilot stands by account of ‘descending fog’
Helicopter pilot Murray Sarginson has been accused of ‘‘making up’’ a story about fog descending over his aircraft before he crashed into a hillside near Lindis Pass.
The 2016 crash claimed the life of his business partner and sole passenger, 32-year-old Liam Edwards.
Civil Aviation Authority lawyer Stephanie Bishop, continuing to cross examine Sarginson in the Invercargill District Court yesterday, said Sarginson had not told authorities about the fog in the aftermath of the accident.
He had made up the story during the trial, she claimed. He disagreed. Sarginson faces five charges related to the April 13, 2016, crash that led to the death of Edwards.
The trial began on August 13 in Queenstown and has resumed in Invercargill this week.
The CAA claims Sarginson was flying his overloaded Robinson R22 in poor visibility when he crashed into a hillside he was hovering beside. The pair were flying from Athol, in Southland, to Mt Algidus Station, in Canterbury.
Sarginson suffered head and chest injuries and Edwards died at the scene.
Yesterday, Bishop suggested there was no reason for Sarginson to hover next to the steep hillside if there was no cloud below him as he has said.
‘‘The issue about the patch of fog [in the distance] was a reason to explain that,’’ she said. He didn’t agree.
She said if there was a light patch of fog he could have flown around it.
He said he now wished he had of kept going, but he had been trained to stop and check it out, to make sure it was safe to continue.
She suggested he was forced to hover at the side of the hill because he had become engulfed in cloud and he needed a reference point.
He didn’t agree.
‘‘The reason you came to a hover was because you lost visibility, isn’t that right?’’, Bishop asked.
‘‘No, it isn’t correct,’’ he said.
‘‘You slowed to a hover because you simply couldn’t proceed,’’ she said.
He didn’t agree. ‘‘I believe I did the safe thing at the at time ... I believe I was too cautious, I should have carried on,’’ he said.
‘‘But I would have been doing the wrong thing if I hadn’t of made sure it was safe to proceed.’’
Bishop suggested he should have waited for the cloud to clear, or turned back, or taken another route.
He replied: ‘‘There was no need to take another route, there was no need to wait for it to clear, because it was clear.’’
While hovering he had became disoriented by the fog which had descended over him, Sarginson said.
The trial, before Judge Bernadette Farnan, is due to continue today.