They said Mr Bennet had painted the pilot as lacking the experience necessary to fly the biplane which crashed near Pallamana airfield.

Long-time friend and chief pilot Captain Chris Pfitzner said the pilot, 33-year-old Rob Morgan, lived on site at Pallamana Airfield and had clocked up 150 hours of aerobatic flying hours in the past two years while being mentored.

“This is aerobatic flight hours alone and doesn’t include regular flying hours,” he said.

“He had between 90 and 100 hours in the last couple of months, flying in the plane he died in.

“He lived and breathed flying.”

Mr Pfitzner said Mr Bennet’s claims that Rob Morgan was too inexperienced to be flying the highly modified biplane that claimed his life were wrong.

“The claims by Bennet were inaccurate,” he said.

“He died doing a manoeuvre he was well trained to do.

“It is vicious and reeks of malice to comment on another pilot’s accident without even witnessing the event.

“I’ve been flying for 25 years and have watched him (Rob) come through the ranks.

“He was a cool, calculated pilot who understood machines ... he asked the stupid questions other people try to ignore.”

Paul Bennet stood by his claims after being contacted by The Standard on Tuesday.

“He had less than 100 hours experience,” he said.

“There are people out there trying to protect their own interest.”

Mr Bennet denied his comments were malicious despite a disagreement with Mr Morgan which resulted in a court case.

“He never paid for work I did on the plane he died in,” he said.

“It was settled out of court.

“The last thing I want to see is anyone getting killed ... I want to promote safety.

“For someone to get a low level aerobatic approval when they had only been doing it for 12 months is ridiculous.”

Mr Pfitzner said Mr Morgan grew up in an aviation family and began flying about six years ago.

“He bought his own aircraft, a 172 Cessna, about four years ago,” he said.

“He started doing acrobatics just over 12 months ago and had good mentors, a good aircraft and he was careful.

“The aircraft (Pitts Special) was purpose built for aerobatics and he was training up as an airshow pilot.”

Mr Pfitzner said he believed the accident could have been caused by instrument error.

“The plane had the power to get out of situation so it had to be an instrument or engine failure,” he said.

“I had seen him power out in situations and you could see he was a well trained pilot.”