Double tragedy in copter death

By PAUL YANDALL and NZPA

Tragedy has struck the family of a Cave Creek victim again with the death of a helicopter pilot in Wellington.

Andrew Ian Shaw, aged 52, of Apiti, north of Palmerston North, died when the helicopter he was piloting crashed into the summit of Mt Victoria yesterday only metres from a viewing lookout where tourists were standing.

Mr Shaw was the father of 20-year-old Peter Andrew Shaw, who was one of 14 people killed at Cave Creek on the West Coast in 1995 when a Department of Conservation platform collapsed.

He was alone in the Bell 204 helicopter, commonly known as a "Huey," when it tipped in the air and fell about 20 metres before landing on its side just before 10 am.

Ambulance officers said he died from head and chest injuries.

Mr Shaw was operations manager for helicopter company Helipro, and was transporting buckets of soil from a building site on an inaccessible Palliser Rd property to a nearby truck.

His wife, Marjorie, said the couple had just learned to cope with the death of their son at Cave Creek.

"Things were just coming right. That's what makes this so much more hurtful."

She said the couple moved to their Manawatu deer farm in 1996 from Wairoa to start a new life after the Cave Creek tragedy.

"Cave Creek ruined our lives. We sold our helicopter business [in Wairoa] and bought the deer farm here to start over.

"We're both very happy here. We intended to retire here."

She said her husband was an experienced pilot who had been flying since 1970. He began flying helicopters in 1976 after losing a leg in a bulldozer accident.

Since then he had made hundreds of rescues and had helped to fight fires near Blenheim last month.

Mrs Shaw said her husband was working in Wellington only for the day, and was expecting to be back at the farm by yesterday afternoon.

"We've been through this before but it doesn't make it any easier. He was a wonderful man - one of the good guys."

She said her only other child, Rachel Shaw-Couture, who lives in Montreal, Canada, was trying to arrange a flight home for the funeral.

Palmerston North-based Helipro chief executive Rick Lucas said he was devastated by the crash.

"We are a small, close-knit company and this is a tragedy for everyone at Helipro."

Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Martyn Gosling said an air crash investigator was at the scene yesterday. Mr Shaw's body and the helicopter wreckage were removed from the site.

Witnesses said the helicopter was carrying a load of soil.

"There was a bit of a gust of wind, it sort of wobbled, then it dropped the bucket and the rope, then it went into another wobble, went on to its side, then crashed on the summit," said Canadian tourist David MacDonald.

A group of people at the nearby viewing lookout raced to the helicopter, pulled the flexi-glass windshield off and dragged Mr Shaw about 10m from the wreckage because a small fire had started in the machine.

Mr MacDonald's partner, Dr Julie Teffier, immediately started giving the pilot first aid.

Another tourist, American Brendon Foley, said: "We were just holding his hand saying, 'Come on, keep going.' He was a fighter - he came back, must have been three times."

Also at the scene was United States Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, who was was admiring the view over Wellington city with friends from Chicago.

"All of a sudden there was this noise and debris - it was just unthinkable, debris just started flying," she said.

A nearby resident, who refused to be named, said he had complained to the council several times about the helicopter noise and the danger.

He was told the machine was working in a private capacity and the council could do nothing about his complaints.