A teenage flight attendant who told police she had been raped by a married pilot on an overnight stopover has no memory of the alleged sexual assault, a court has been told.

She says she needed counselling for a year after the encounter and had not returned to her job.

The man, who has interim name suppression, was fired from Air Nelson in June last year for serious misconduct, including sexual harassment. He lost a case of unjustified dismissal and has appealed to the Employment Court.

The allegations stem from May 20, 2008, when the pilot, another pilot and the air hostess had to stay overnight in a Napier hotel after bad weather halted their flight.

Giving evidence in Auckland yesterday, the woman said she had not worked as an air hostess since the incident. She now worked in the aviation industry in another role. "This situation I find difficult to come to terms with and upsetting when processing or seeing other flight attendants and former colleagues."

On route to the hotel the two pilots bought four bottles of red wine and half-a-dozen beer. All three later changed into bathrobes and met in a pilot's room to drink the alcohol.

The woman complained to police the next day that one pilot had raped her. He was not charged by police.

"I was initially hesitant to go to police because I was concerned that no-one would believe me because I had no memory of four hours or so and because alcohol had been involved." She eventually decided to lay a complaint as she thought something "very wrong" had happened.

The pilot's lawyer, John Haigh, QC, suggested the sex had been consensualbut the woman later regretted it and made up her memory loss as an excuse. She denied this.

The trial is continuing.