The investigation of an incident at Queenstown airport last month in which a Cessna aircraft began moving towards the runway minus its pilot could take up to 12 months to complete.
The incident occurred on September 5 when the pilot was propeller-starting a Cessna 207, owned by Milford Sound Scenic Flights.
The Otago Daily Times understands the throttle in the aircraft may have been set incorrectly, so when the pilot completed the propeller start, the plane began to move unexpectedly.
It is understood a colleague sitting in the pilot's seat stopped the plane by turning the ignition off.
Transport Accident Investigation Commission (Taic) communications manager Peter Northcote told the ODT the length of the investigation would depend on the commission's workload and other arising matters.
However, as the investigation went along, there were opportunities for people involved to learn from the incident and look at the way things were done.
Mr Northcote said part of the investigation would be to determine what happened, and what could have happened.
"We're investigating not because this particular event ended with any sort of damage or injury, but because there is the potential for that type of event to lead to that.
"This type of incident would have seen operators checking how much potential there is to get into a similar situation.
"The aircraft was being hand started - that's not unusual in itself.
"What was unusual was that there was an unplanned movement of the aircraft after it started.
"Establishing how that came about is going to be the focus of the investigation."
Milford Sound Scenic Flights chief executive Mark Quickfall told NZPA the pilot was stood down after the incident last month and safety procedures improved to ensure aircraft did not make off without their pilots.
"It was a serious incident and error of judgement by the pilot," he said.
