'Maybe we weren't going to make it ...' - Cameraman

A freelance cameraman who filmed a Pacific Blue takeoff inside the cabin thought "maybe we weren't going to make it too far", the Queenstown District Court was told yesterday.

A 54-year-old pilot, of Papakura, appeared for the fourth day of a defended hearing before Judge Kevin Phillips.

The pilot, who has interim name suppression, has denied operating a Boeing 737-800 in a careless manner on June 22, 2010, a charge laid by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Adelaide-based freelance cameraman Simon Christie, who was working on The Amazing Race Asia television programme and on board the aircraft when it departed in dwindling light, said the takeoff was bumpy.

Speaking via a Skype videolink, he said he was holding a camera but put it down during takeoff after being told over the PA system: "We are going to give it a go."

"It was bumpy, 30 seconds to a minute then we seemed to drop, not a big drop. I could see houses clearly because we were heading to a large lake.

"Maybe we weren't going to make it too far, it seemed to be a steep climb for a few minutes, once we broke through the clouds everything was fine."

Virgin Australia – previously Pacific Blue – flight operations manager Geoffrey Lowe told the court about safety procedures for a 737-800 flying out of Queenstown if an engine failed.

Using aircraft engineering performance data, simulators and satellite topographic maps, Pacific Blue formed safety plans for any engine-out incidents taking off from Queenstown.

Queenstown was a complex airport, surrounded by mountains, and the biggest workload was calculating engine failure procedures against topography, he said.

The minimum engine-out takeoff clearance for the highest obstacle out of Queenstown was 35 feet (10.5 metres), he told the court.

Judge Phillips said that was "a pretty fine line".

Mr Lowe said the company manual stipulated a pilot flew a figure-of-eight return to Queenstown if an engine failed before a set takeoff reference point or, if it occurred after the takeoff reference, continued on a set heading initially with maximum continuous thrust.

Eyewitness Alan Kirker, who watched the take-off over the Frankton Arm from Larch Hill Pl, told the court he saw an unusually low aircraft in level flight.

The charter boat skipper, whose vessel was on a list of standby rescue boats, said his first thought was how quickly he could leave his home to launch on Lake Wakatipu. "It got to the Kelvin peninsula, banked very heavily, maybe a 45-degree bank.

"I was afraid it was going to clip the trees. "I was watching a front coming ... it banked heavily around the golf course. I could still see it again as it got around the base of Deer Park (Heights). I could only see the lights. It was in the whiteout."

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