The aircraft operator involved in the Lockhart River crash allowed inexperienced pilots to fly passenger flights unpaid to clock up flying time, a Senate inquiry has heard. 

Fiona Norris, the wife of a pilot killed when a passenger in the 2005 crash, said Transair pilots were effectively buying flying time while carrying passengers.

Ms Norris said the pilots purchased their time to increase their hours of flight experience.

"I know many pilots who had bought time with Transair," she said.

"Whilst undergoing training, but actually buying time in the capacity that they’re not getting paid an income at all, they’re actually buying their time," Ms Norris said.

She said the practice was aimed at getting the pilots flying hours up to a required level.

"Under a situation where there isn’t really a proper check and training capacity, where it is not really in the interest of the airline to really train these pilots, it’s simply a money-making scheme for them," she said.

Her husband, Paul Raymond Norris, was one of the 15 killed people in the Lockhart River crash.

A coroner found the pilot flew too fast and attempted an unauthorised landing, and the airline’s poor safety management practices contributed to the crash.

"I come here with the capacity of a very human element as to how the system failed my husband and the other passengers on board that flight that day," Ms Norris said.

"Obviously, I can only talk from experience."

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