I do not accept the argument that this event should not of ended up in court. This is exactly where a safety breach should end up - after all who are we protecting here - I hope it's the traveling public. -Prospector
I disagree.
As has been pointed out before in this thread, when there is a medical case, it is heard by a panel of Doctors. When the Bar is involved, a panel of Lawyers. This Judge has no aviation background nor experience of flying in and out of Queenstown, nor the CAA's star witness Colin Glasgow (He spent the last 30 years drinking coffee at FL300 in his B747-200) nor Mr Black the Harbour master. The arrogance of the witnesses is astounding.
I agree, any wilful breech needs to handled accordingly. Supposedly a "Just Culture" which anyone involved in NZ aviation knows is a nice byword that cannot be achieved under current CAA regulations and law.
However as has been said before, this non-compliance could have been handled in-house with internal company sanctions with the same result, lower costs and greater educational deterrent value.
The only educational value I get out of this is never trust the NZ CAA.