ROTORUA - A pilot who crashed his helicopter and died in the Urewera Ranges did not have a document with him which would have told him about the weight of extra equipment on board the aircraft.
The Rotorua coroner, David Dowthwaite, was hearing evidence last week into the death of 46-year-old Roy Hodgson, of Takapuna.
Robbie McKay said that on November 2, 1998, he, another passenger and Mr Hodgson were on a hunting trip in the Urewera Ranges, near Murupara, 65km south-east of Rotorua.
They were based at Maungatoatoa hut and were using the helicopter to carry deer. On the day of the crash, Mr Hodgson assessed the weight he thought was safe to carry and took off.
However, while hovering just above the ground, he noted to Mr McKay that there was not much power in reserve.
He continued a small distance and as the helicopter lost power and height, dropped the deer which had been hanging beneath the aircraft to try to reduce the weight.
He was unable to correct the helicopter, however, and it plunged into trees, before resting on the bank of a stream.
Mr McKay and the other passenger dragged Mr Hodgson free and tried to revive him when he stopped breathing but failed.
A Civil Aviation Authority safety investigator, Alister Buckingham, said he concluded, among other things, that the helicopter was operating normally but that another pilot who had used the aircraft before Mr Hodgson's flight had called it "gutless."
Mr Buckingham said Mr Hodgson did not have a supplement in his flight manual which would have told him about the extra weight he would be carrying with the equipment used to lift deer.
He said that Mr Hodgson might have changed his plans to fly had he known about the extra weight.
The crash could have been avoided had the weight been reduced, said Mr Buckingham.
But once the flight had reached a certain stage, there was probably little that Mr Hodgson could have done to avoid the crash.
Captain Peter Clulow, a senior pilot and pilot training officer, said he, Airline Pilots' Association chief accident investigator Captain Stuart Julian and others had also investigated the accident. Their report suggested that contributing factors included power loss and a slight tail wind, which could have altered the distance needed to lift the helicopter.
Mr Dowthwaite reserved his finding.
- NZPA
Coroner told of weighty load in Urewera crash
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