Attempted coverup alleged after fatal tandem skydive
Police investigated company boss over phone call after 2018 death
A public official claims a Queenstown skydiving boss asked him to sign a false document about the company’s safety plan following an American tourist’s tandem parachuting death.
The allegations sparked a police investigation to determine whether the skydiving boss, NZONE general manager Clark Scott, had tried to obstruct or defeat the course of justice.
But police investigators found there was insufficient evidence to lay charges. Scott is adamant the claims against him were unfounded and that he did nothing wrong.
In the months after 27-year-old Tyler Nii crash-landed into Lake Wakatipu and died in January 2018, Scott allegedly phoned Queenstown’s then harbourmaster Marty Black to ask for “a favour”.
Documents released to the Weekend Herald under the Official Information Act by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) show Black claimed Scott told him NZONE was “in the gun” as investigations into the accident gathered steam.
Black alleged Scott had asked him to sign a document saying he’d reviewed and approved the company’s emergency response plan prior to the accident, and that he was “happy with the procedures that the company had in place at that time in the event of a water landing/accident”.
Black later told investigators he “was not prepared to do anything dishonest”, that he refused Scott’s request and immediately informed his bosses at Queenstown Lakes District Council before alerting the CAA.
Black told the Herald he felt Scott had wanted him “to lie like a flat fish”.
In his opinion: “There was no rescue plan, there was nothing I’d sighted, and he wanted me to lie through my teeth and say they were
all hunky dory.” A Transport Accident Investigations Commission (TAIC) report later found multiple failures and gear malfunctions led to the tragedy.
It found the company had no rescue boat on standby and its water response emergency plan had not factored in the survival time in cold water and “increased likelihood that rescuers would arrive too late to save lives”.
The victim’s brother, Kevin Nii, was shocked by the developments which in his opinion suggested a “cover-up”.
He called on the CAA to reopen the investigation into this brother’s death, to establish whether there were grounds for a prosecution.
“I just knew it was a bulls**t investigation in the first place. They cleared everybody and everything,” Kevin Nii said.
The Weekend Herald can reveal that CAA officials alerted Queenstown detectives 11 days after the phone call and a criminal investigation was launched.
But the investigation was later shelved and no charges were ever laid against Scott.
He told the Herald he rejected the “untrue” suggestions he had asked Black to lie or that he had tried to mislead investigators.
Scott said he called Black to ask if he would review the company’s emergency response documentation “and advise whether he thought it was appropriate and complete”.
“This was an entirely appropriate and professional inquiry to make — to ensure that the documentation at the time of the accident was robust and appropriate,” Scott said.
“It is an outrageous allegation to state that Mr Black was asked to lie. Mr Black is wrong.”
Scott said he subsequently spoke with police who were satisfied that the allegations were not correct.
The documents show CAA manager regulatory investigations Rob Scriven wrote to Queenstown CIB in the winter of 2018 asking for police to investigate Black’s claims.
Scriven’s email said the aviation watchdog was investigating the fatality to determine whether to start a prosecution.
The investigation included what emergency procedures were in place before the accident, which “would help us determine whether the operator had in place appropriate steps to deal with this type of event”.
The email says Black was interviewed by CAA investigators about the accident a day before the phone call with Scott.
“Mr Black confirms that he had no contact with Skydive Queenstown [the company] prior to the accident with respect to any emergency response plan.”
Though Scott’s name is redacted, the documents show Scott contacted Black by phone.
“[Scott] wanted Mr Black ‘to do
[Scott] a favour’ and sign a document that [Scott] would prepare . . . asserting that Mr Black had reviewed the company’s Emergency Response Plan prior to the 10 January 2018 accident,” Scriven wrote.
“[Scott] advised Mr Black that the company was ‘in the gun’ or words to that effect over the CAA and ‘OSH’ investigation . . . [Scott] also spoke about it being the CAA’s fault because they were forcing the company to use sub-standard reserve chutes.”
The email says Scott sent a copy of NZONE’s current emergency procedures to Black by email later that day.
“On advice of [his employer] Mr Black replied to the email from [Scott] advising he was not prepared to do what was asked and informing [Scott] that he had already provided a statement to CAA to the contrary.”
Black had since given a formal
statement about the phone call to CAA investigators, Scriven wrote.
“He was upset by what [Scott] was asking him to do, he considered it fraudulent and [it] disturbed him enough that he lost sleep over the matter.”
Scriven added that in his view there appeared to be a “prima facie case of a wilful attempt to obstruct or defeat the course of justice”.
Queenstown police responded, saying that if Black’s statement showed “criminal liability”, Scott could be interviewed “under caution” by police.
It’s understood Scott did provide a statement and the investigation was eventually closed.
No one was ever prosecuted over the accident and Nii’s body has never been found.
Black told the Herald he could not
understand why police did not lay charges.
“[Police] said, ‘We’ve talked to the gentleman and it was all a misunderstanding’, which is absolute crap.”
Black, now 74, was harbour master for 36 years. He said he was known as a “straight shooter” and had nothing to hide.
“Why would I lie?” Southern Police Detective Senior Sergeant Malcolm Inglis said police carried out a thorough investigation following Nii’s death.
“The allegations [regarding the phone call] were part of this investigation and police interviewed both parties, however there was not enough evidence to substantiate the claims.
“Throughout the course of the investigation, there was nothing found which met the threshold for prosecution,
in line with the Solicitor General’s prosecution guidelines.”
Malcolm said the police’s sympathies were with Nii’s family following the tragic incident.
The CAA deputy chief executive strategy, governance, risk and assurance, Dean Winter, said the agency approached police “as we felt it was warranted for them to consider an investigation”.
“NZ Police are the appropriate agency to deal with allegations relating to the Crimes Act and we followed our process by referring the concern. We accept the NZ Police decision to not lay charges,” Winter said.
The CAA’s decision not to prosecute NZONE in connection with Nii’s death followed a thorough review by the Crown solicitor “and their application of the Solicitor General’s prosecution guidelines”.