Giving evidence through a Skype link from Adelaide, passenger Simon Christie said passengers boarded and remained seated for "a good 40 to 45 minutes", with announcements on the plane's PA system keeping them updated.
"The first was about the weather - obviously the weather had come in and [we] were waiting for a break in the weather," Mr Christie said.
"The following one was along those lines as well; it was coming to a point of running out of light ..."
Mr Christie, of Adelaide, said the announcements were made by either the pilot or the co-pilot.
Before the court is the plane's 54-year-old pilot, of Auckland, who denies one charge of operating a plane carelessly on June 22, 2010.
His name is suppressed.
Mr Christie, a freelance cameraman, said none of the initial announcements was of "particular concern".
Passengers were being informed about "the fact that Queenstown Airport did not have lights, as it was getting ... darker there would be a cut-off point to where we could no longer fly out".
"The last [announcement] ... was the most concerning, the pilot or co-pilot saying something along the lines of 'We're going to give it a go'."
Mr Christie, who had been filming from the plane, described the take-off as "bumpy" for 30 seconds to a minute.
"Then we seemed to drop - not a big drop, but dropped to the point where I was holding the camera and I actually put it down, away from the window.
"We seemed to level out very early on. [The plane was] not very high ... maybe 1000ft to 2000ft.
"I could see houses clearly, which concerned me ... because we were heading towards a large lake and I was concerned maybe we weren't going to make it too far."
Mr Christie said the plane flew below "a very low cloud" then turned left and it "seemed to be a steep climb for a few minutes" before breaking through the cloud into clear weather.
Video shot from inside the plane shows the plane parked at its stand, with footage taken from the entrance of the plane showing Deer Park Heights barely visible through low mist and cloud, at times driving rain and a windsock blowing at an angle of between 45deg and almost 90deg.
Footage taken after take-off shows Kelvin Heights homes illuminated by lights as the plane flew up the Frankton Arm, with white caps at the shoreline around Jardine Park also visible.
