Dash 8 pilot tells court of stress

The pilot of the ill-fated Ansett flight 703, which plunged into the Tararua Ranges nearly six years ago, has told the High Court at Palmerston North of the stress he faced after the crash.


The plane crashed killing three on board, and a fourth died later from burns.


But it took five years after the Ansett Dash-8 crash before Pilot Garry Sotheran was able to write a full statement to police.


Sotheran faces four charges of manslaughter and three of injuring through an unlawful act.


"Essentially I found myself unable to complete the task, due to what I guess you would call anxiety and stress... I had to go to my doctor to get medication to solve the problem, and essentially I was unable to finish the statement," said Sotheran.


Three weeks after police received his statement, he was charged.


Sotheran gave evidence on Monday after four weeks of Crown evidence in which the defence's Hugh Rennie QC says they failed to prove the pilot was criminally negligent.


According to the defence, many factors came together on June 9, 1995 to cause the fatal crash.


Rennie said those factors included landing gear problems and shocking weather conditions.


He also cited a difficult runway and a poorly trained and tired first officer, Barry Brown.


Even the prosecution witnesses could not agree on what had caused the crash, he said.


Rennie told the jurors that Sotheran had responded quickly to the emergency, and flew the plane right up to the moment of impact.


"That single action avoided a direct impact into the ground and produced the skipping stone effect which as we have heard meant so many survived," said