The directors of a former outback tourism company have been ordered to pay more than $150,000 over the death of a young tourist boarding one of their hot air balloons eight years ago.
The woman's death in 2013 came after a scarf she was wearing was sucked into a fan on a hot air balloon
The balloon operators were convicted and ordered to pay more than $150,000
The court heard the prolonged legal case has had a "big impact" on the woman's family
Outback Ballooning directors Andrea and Jason Livingston were today handed the fine after the Alice Springs Local Court found the company's failure to comply with work health and safety duties resulted in the passenger's death.
Sydney woman Stephanie Bernoth, 35, died on July 15, 2013, two days after being injured when the scarf she was wearing was sucked into an inflation fan while boarding the balloon near Alice Springs.
A lengthy court battle over the death reached the High Court but was reverted back to Alice Springs Local Court in 2019.
Last month, Mr Livingston pleaded guilty on behalf of the company for failing to comply with work health and safety duties.
In court on Thursday, Mr Livingston and co-director Andrea Livingston were convicted and fined $120,000, with a victim's levy of $1,000.
They were also ordered to contribute $10,000 to the work safety regulator that brought the prosecution, NT WorkSafe, so it can create and distribute written advice regarding precautions tourists must undertake in different weather conditions in Central Australia.
The pair must also pay the complainant's legal costs, which amounted to more than $23,000.
The maximum penalty for the charges Outback Ballooning faced was a $1.5 million fine.
Judge Greg Borchers said the company "breached its duty to the passengers" by failing to eliminate or minimise the potential risk caused by the balloon fan when passengers were boarding.
He told the court those risk-reducing factors "would not have caused an unnecessary burden on the defendant company to adopt, even if it meant the employment of one further staff member to be present at the launching site where the balloon was to be inflated and loaded."
Mr and Ms Livingston purchased Outback Ballooning two weeks before Ms Bernoth died.
The court heard that company is no longer trading and was unable to meet its debts, but that its directors now operate another ballooning business through a separate company.
The head of NT WorkSafe, Bill Esteves, expressed condolences to Ms Bernoth's husband and her family in the Philippines.
"The main point is a young woman on holidays in the Northern Territory died because a business did not have appropriate systems to prevent injury from a well-known hazard in the workplace.
"Entanglement in machinery can cause fatal injuries and businesses must ensure they are not complacent about safety and not to normalise accepting risks."
The court has previously heard Ms Bernoth's family was awarded compensation in 2014.