Crater Lake Crash

[ardypilot]

Man helicopters are appearing everywhere for me latley! Last night I turned on the news and heard this:

An injured pilot scaled an ice wall on Mt Ruapehu last night to get help for his passengers after a helicopter crashed near the Crater Lake.

Five people, four men and a woman, were taken to hospital after being rescued from the crash site.

The crash happened about 5.30pm when a Hughes 500 carrying five people, including three Department of Conservation staff, was returning from the Crater Lake.

National Park police spokesman Tony Carne said the helicopter crashed soon after take-off, hitting the side of the crater and falling into the water.

"The occupants had to climb out of the water on to a ledge between the lake and an ice wall," Mr Carne said.

The alarm was raised about 6.10pm when the pilot, who had climbed the ice wall, and walked down the mountain toward Whakapapa skifield, met some trampers.

Taupo-based Lion Foundation rescue helicopter pilot Dan harcourt said the pilot used one of the tramper's cellphones to dial 111.

"The pilot had managed to climb the near vertical 30-metre ice shelf above his crash site with just an ice axe and a broken foot, and then continued down the mountain until he was able to alert hikers to his situation," Mr Harcourt said.

Mr Carne said emergency staff from National Park police, Ruapehu Alpine rescue Organisation (RARO) and the Department of Conservation responded.

"Four RARO members were airlifted from Whakapapa Medical Centre and assessed the injured parties via a long-line below the Helicopter Services rescue helicopter," Mr Carne said.

Mr Harcourt said the four passengers were long-lined up out of the lake to the rim of the crater and then ferried down for assessment at Whakapapa Medical Centre.

All of the victims were treated at the centre for a range of injuries including a broken rib, dislocated shoulder, head wounds and hypothermia.

Mr Harcourt said a 37-year-old Whakapapa man was flown to Waikato Hospital with chest, head and leg injuries. Another Taupo man was also flown to Waikato to be assessed for a suspected spinal injury.

The 33-year-old pilot was flown to Waikato for treatment, while the other two passengers were driven to Taumarunui Hospital to be treated for mild hypothermia.

Mr Carne said the Department of Conservation, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Transport Accident Commission and police would be investigating the cause of the crash and the recovery of the helicopter.

[ZK-Brock]

Hmm, it seems that GA air safety has gone down in the second half of this year. Anyone know if the CAA has recognised this and taken any steps?

[towerguy]

Keep them out of it - no need for knee jerking!

remember there are only 3 types of lies :-

lies, damned lies and statistics! - without the real numbers and proper causes analysed there is no point saying there is an increase or decrease. ie none in first 6 months followed by 3 unrelated minor incidents and 1 crash is still less than 5 evenly spaced in previous year ( all numbers hypothetical ) but looks worse.

[Dreamweaver]

That was a pretty amazing escape! We went up to the lake on Saturday and stood at the Shelter that overlooks the lake. One of the guides was telling us that we could see where the helicopter took off from but the crash site was under the lip of the lake in front of us.
He works alongside the DOC workers involved and said that if it was not for the Helicopter being on the otherside of the mountain doing work then they may not have survived much longer because of hypothermia. He could not say more than that because of the CAA investigation and amount of reporters he has dealt with.