Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand
07 June 2007
MEDIA RELEASE
A NZPA-attributed article was published in the Dominion on 7 June 2007 regarding the sentencing of helicopter pilot Toby Wallis. To clarify the position of the CAA, the following message was sent to Kevin Norquay, the News Editor at NZPA:
Good morning Kevin,
In an article in this morning's Dominion (attributed to NZPA) regarding Toby Wallis who pleaded guilty to a charge of careless flying yesterday, the last comment in the article states that Wallis was also charged with dangerous flying and low flying but "both were dropped because Wallis claimed a loss of license would seriously affect his ability to obtain any income from his commercial flying business."
The suggestion then that the CAA dropped those charges because Wallis was concerned he may be disqualified and out of pocket, is not correct.
The endangerment charge was laid in the alternative to the careless flying charge. It was accordingly withdrawn, together with the less serious low flying charge, in return for Wallis' guilty plea on the careless charge. This avoided the need to go to trial while allowing the facts to be presented to the court on both the low flying and endangerment issues.
The CAA is satisfied with the outcome.
I hope that this clarifies the issue.
Regards,
Bill Sommer
Manager Communications
Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand
Tel: +644 560 9411
Mob: +0275 468 216
Fax: +644 569 2024