Regardless of what sort of person he is and the reasons for his actions how about considering the repercussions of his little escapade.
What about the people that dived into the water to drag him out, the crews of the Police, Westpac and other choppers. The loss of revenue from those businesses that were forced to close etc. What about the owner of the aircraft? They are now facing loss of revenue, increased insurance premiums, bad publicity etc. And as he flew over my house he put me and my family as risk (low on fuel, upset, bad stormy night etc).
TV3 ran an item last night showing how easy it is to steal an aircraft from Ardmore which included Peter Clarke telling the world that it is easy to hotwire one! Plus that in Australia they have increased security on GA aircraft and fields.
So what now? Am I going to have to pay out of my pocket for new fences and security around the country? New locks etc for my aircraft? More in premiums? Closure or restrictions of airspace etc.
Whatever his motive or intentions and putting aside that he may be a “good bloke”, what he did was rather selfish.