Inquiries & Recommendations

Ngā ketuketutanga me ngā tūtohunga

After boarding six passengers for a river rafting trip the pilot lifted off the hillside helipad. While commencing to move forward he allowed main rotor torque to turn the helicopter to the left but found that full right pedal was insufficient to stop the rotation to the left. An attempt to achieve forward speed by use of the cyclic control was unsuccessful and after about four rotations the helicopter collided with the hillside, rolled over rearwards and came to rest inverted. Four of the passengers sustained minor injury.

Shortly after becoming airborne from Pauanui Beach Aerodrome, the aircraft's tailplane came off. The pilot abandoned the aircraft but became entangled in the parachute rigging lines and fell to the sea.

The aircraft was equipped with the aircraft manuafacturers wheel/ski undercarriage. At an indicated airspeed of 130 knots the pilot heard a loud bang accompanied by a jolt and then severe vibration, followed by another loud bang and worse vibration. Both left and right skiis had pivoted about their attachments to a position beyond the vertical, creating considerable drag. An emergency landing was carried out, and on touchdown the heels of the skiis contacted the ground which returned them to normal position facilitating a normal roll out.

[A preliminary investigation showed that the circumstances were not likely to have significant implications for transport safety. Consistent with section 13 of the TAIC Act the Commission discontinued the investigation and no report was published.]

The pilot was one of a group of seventh formers camping in the vicinity of a local airstrip. He and a friend left the group in the afternoon to hire an aircraft. Returning to the area, he flew two passes over the airstrip from the north east before making a third low level flight from the west up the centre-line toward his classmates on the ground. Just before reaching them he turned the aircraft to enter the valley of the Matanganui stream. Shortly afterwards witnesses observed the aircraft in a wing-over manoevre and saw it nose-dive out of sight, followed by the sound of an impact.

ZK-HOP failed to return to base from a deer hunting sortie the previous day. The wreckage of ZK-HOP was located at the bush line below a steep tussock and scrub covered slope. A prominent gouge mark had been made in the slope further up, by the main rotor blades. The shooter had been thrown from the helicopter as it descended. The pilot was found lying beside the helicopter. Both occupants had died from injuries received in the accident.

The pilot had sprayed the property, traversed by 110000 volt electrical power transmission lines, on many previous occasions. He experienced no problem during the first sortie in which the aircraft passed beneath the conductors at least six times. He then re-loaded, and made two further spray runs under the conductors. On the next run, after passing over a solitary tree, the pilot was obliged to lower the nose of the aircraft to fly beneath the conductors, prior to pulling up again beyond them to clear a stand of trees.

During a pleasure flight with a friend as passenger the pilot began to feel unwell. His symptoms of illness intensified quickly and realising he might become incapacitated the pilot reduced engine power and trimmed the aircraft for a slow descent. Witnesses saw the aircraft in a moderate descending left turn which continued until it collided with the sea some 50 m off Takapuna Beach. The pilot, who was seriously injured, regained consciousness underwater. Despite rescue attempts by the pilot, and others who arrived within a few minutes, the passenger drowned.

[A preliminary investigation showed that the circumstances were not likely to have significant implications for transport safety. Consistent with section 13 of the TAIC Act the Commission discontinued the investigation and no report was published.]

The aircraft had departed Napier during the morning for a 90 minute round trip scenic flight to Mt Ruapehu. The aircraft failed to return. ELT signals led to discovery of the wreckage, in the afternoon, at the head of a blind valley. The aircraft had collided with trees in a manner consistent with a deliberate attempt by the pilot to minimise the effect of impact on the occupants. The circumstances suggested that neither of the rear seat passengers were wearing their lapstraps. The co-pilot and one of the rear passengers were dead when the first rescuer reached the aircraft.

Towards the end of the take-off a strong tailwind gust and downdraught was encountered. The aircraft's tailplane struck a fence and the Fletcher sank down a steep face before striking the ground with its left wing and coming to rest against a tree.

The aircraft departed on a scenic flight with 50 litres of fuel onboard. After becoming unsure of his position for some time the pilot returned to Napier and joined a right base leg for runway 25 some 1 hour 55 minutes after departure. The engine lost power and after landing the aircraft in the sea the pilot and passenger swum 150 m to shore.