Interesting little fact that came out today ...
Pilot accused of unsafe take-off declined to talk to CAA - National - NZ Herald News
"There was no evidence of pressure to depart the flight."
He said the flight did have competitors from the television reality show The Amazing Race on board, but this should not have been a factor to the breach in departure time.
... not having seen the episode, looked for it on you-tube, sure enough there some in-flight footage of the take-off [EDIT: Removed the you-tube link, as the pilot has name suppression, you might be able to identify him from the PA announcements, but a good detective should be able to find it] Look around the 2:30 mark and in particular the view out the window at the 3:12 mark.
I don't know whose side of the case it helps, but you'd think they'd try and get all the footage from the Amazing Race camera crew they could.