ACCIDENT RECOVERY
accumulated about 5,500 hours of rotorcraft flight time in addition to 314 hours in single-engine airplanes, for which he held a private pilot rating. He held current approvals for sling loads, agricultural application, and
Part 135 passenger operations. His most recent Part 135 flight test was completed about three months before the accident with an October 2019 expiration date. He also held ratings in the Robinson R22 and R44 and Airbus
AS350. He had flown 67 hours in the preceding 90 days, including 35 in the MD 500D, in which he’d logged 1,138 hours of career experience. He was also the son of the company
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founder and the youngest brother of a pilot killed just three months ear- lier when his R44 crashed into Lake Wānaka, an accident attributed to mast bumping. Their two older brothers, also pilots, made a tribute flight over his memorial service.
The Investigation The debris field began more than 150 m (492 ft.) before the main wreckage and continued at least as far beyond, to the far side of the Clutha River, while spreading almost as far to either side. Data recovered from a Garmin GPSMap 296 and an iPhone allowed reconstruction of the helicopter’s flight path. Moving along that track from south to north, the first pieces of wreckage were one tail-rotor blade, the tip of another, the tip of one main-rotor blade, and the tail boom, all slightly to the left of the flight path, while the tail-rotor bell crank was farther off to the right. Another main-rotor blade was just
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behind the main wreckage, which was largely consumed by fire; the tips of two other blades were found about 200 m to the right. The tail-rotor drive- shaft and left rear door were just ahead on the left, while the tail-rotor gearbox was well off to the right, about 50 m ahead of the second main-rotor blade tip. Five ammunition boxes and the two fuel containers were found another 50 m to 100 m north. A few fragments of the acrylic windshield made it to the far side of the river; about 40% of the windshield presumably fell into the river and was not recovered. The distribution of the fragments corroborated witness accounts of
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