By PAUL YANDALL
The pilot of the helicopter that crashed on the Southern Motorway deliberately landed on the median strip to avoid hurting anyone in the heavy traffic, says the man he was flying to meet.
The pilot, Peter Wenham, is in a critical but stable condition in Middlemore Hospital. He is due to have surgery today for his injuries.
His passenger, Jesse O'Neill, an Auckland dentist, is in a moderate but stable condition in hospital.
Mr Wenham hired the helicopter on Friday from Ardmore Helicopters for the pair to fly to the Parachute Christian festival in Matamata.
They were to work as medics for the ambulance service EMT and were also delivering medical supplies and equipment when the crash occurred.
The chief executive of EMT, Sean Coleman-Maynard, who was waiting for the two in Matamata, said yesterday that he had spoken to the pilot and was told that he had deliberately landed on the median barrier to avoid hitting traffic.
"He did a superb job. He saw there was no space [and] there was a truck coming towards him. They owe their lives to his piloting skills," he said.
A statement from Mr Wenham said he lost control of the helicopter before the accident, about 20 minutes after takeoff.
"[I] was forced to make an emergency landing according to standard emergency procedures while attempting to avoid traffic."
He said he brought the helicopter down on the median barrier after he realised that he did not have a clear traffic lane to land in.
He credited his and Mr O'Neill's survival to the training he received from Ardmore Flying School over the past five years.
Mr Wenham gained his full helicopter licence two years ago and has chartered helicopters regularly from Ardmore Helicopters, said the company's owner, Frank Parker.
Mr Parker said the pair took off about 4.40 pm on Friday in reasonable weather and there was nothing unusual in their flight path. The trip was expected to take 40 minutes and the pair were to return today.
Air accident investigator Alan Daley said it was too early to say what caused the accident. His investigation is expected to take several weeks.
"We're looking at the mechanical systems, the electrical systems, everything that could have gone wrong."
He said he had heard some witness accounts but he did not have a consistent version of what had happened.
One witness told the Herald he saw the back rotor fly off the chopper before the crash, but some accounts have said the helicopter was intact when it crashed.
"It's a bit like a lot of people looking at the same thing from a different view - you get some differences," said Mr Daley.
One witness, Dennis Barron, who was travelling from Auckland to his Tuakau home, said he saw the helicopter emerge from low-lying cloud about 40m above the ground.
"It just came right out of the clouds. It hovered, shuddered and then it came straight down. There was a bit of a crunch. If they had landed on the road they might have been all right."
He climbed on top of the wreck to cut the two unconscious men from their seatbelts.
A nurse cared for the men until ambulances arrived.
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