A court case over a vintage plane crash has ended after the parties involved agreed to a confidential settlement.
Warbirds Over Wanaka and the Royal New Zealand Air Force have abandoned their appeal against a High Court decision that found both liable for a vintage plane crash at the 2018 event.
Pilot Arthur Dovey successfully took the two groups to the High Court in Wellington, claiming $616,500 plus GST for damages to his World War 2 Russian Yak-3.
Mr Dovey and another pilot were asked to open the show in March 2018 when two other aircraft were delayed because of bad weather.
The plane was wrecked after Mr Dovey landed on a grass runway and hit a cherry picker he thought had been moved. He was not injured.
The High Court heard Mr Dovey did not have insurance for his aircraft and was entitled to expect that he would be alerted to any hazards by the display director on duty.
Justice Jillian Mallon found Mr Dovey’s approach when he came into land was professional and skillful, and any negligence on his behalf in not checking the runway was clear was outbalanced by the duty of the show organiser and display director.
"A pilot takes risks when display flying, but one of those should not be that there will be a large stationary object on an available runway," she said.
A New Zealand Defence Force spokesman said the matter had "been settled by the respective insurers of the appellants, and the settlement agreement is subject to confidentiality".
Mr Dovey’s counsel Chris Chapman also confirmed the appeal had been formally abandoned after all parties reached a confidential settlement.
The settlement was reached last week, Chapman said.
Warbirds over Wanaka and the Attorney-general, acting on behalf of the air force, filed for abandonment yesterday in the High Court.
Warbirds general manager Ed Taylor also confirmed the matter had been resolved and he did not wish to make any further comment.
By: Hazel Osborne
