The Army was heard today at the inquest into the death of NZSAS Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea. Its lead training officer appeared to answer questions but stumbled when quizzed about a key investigation report into Kahotea’s death. David Fisher reports.
A roll call of failures contributing to the death of an NZSAS soldier during a training exercise has been aired during an inquest, along with assurances from the NZ Defence Force that changes had been made.
The extent of the changes that followed the death of NZSAS Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea in 2019 was described as extending beyond the military inquiry into his death to system-wide change.
Assistant Chief of Army (Training) Colonel Paul Hayward confirmed to the inquest that Kahotea’s death was one of the incidents behind a system-wide overhaul of safety in training across the Army.
Hayward’s examination turned the inquest from the detail of what transpired on the day of Kahotea’s fatal fall into an examination of the failures identified and the wider safety net supporting NZSAS and Army training.
He testified to significant changes including the production of new training documents that included elements directly linked to Kahotea’s death.
Those included spelling out in the documents the NZSAS training practice of “crawl-walk-run” that saw soldiers carry out rehearsals of new techniques before attempting them under more testing conditions.
But the clarity around what changes had been made became less so when Catherine Cull, KC, counsel for Coroner Tania Tetitaha, began to quiz Hayward about safety gaps and possible corrections set out in an extensive WorkSafe investigation report.
It emerged Hayward had not read the 2021 investigation report, which was in the bundle of evidence distributed in the court - and in front of him - since the inquest began yesterday.
Cull asked if Hayward would be willing to answer questions about the safety changes WorkSafe set out if she was to lead him through the report.
“I have not had a chance to read those recommendations,” he said.
The court was adjourned to allow Hayward to consider the material and take advice on how those matters matched with changes made.
The WorkSafe report was one of a number of inquiries that stemmed from Kahotea’s death and was the culmination of an extensive investigation.
The coroner is, in part, scrutinising the changes made to see whether there are further recommendations she can make to ensure the mistakes that contributed to Kahotea’s death are not repeated.
Kahotea, a decorated NZSAS soldier and a father, died during a 2019 training exercise with United States Green Berets and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), known as the “Night Stalkers”, at the NZ Defence Force’s Battle Training Facility in South Auckland.
On the day of the exercise, the visiting US aviation crew included in the training a technique known as a “wheel bump” used to insert soldiers quickly at the top of a building or other elevated position. The technique uses the wheel of the helicopter as a brace to hold it steady against the intended drop-off.
Contrary to the NZSAS normal training practice of “crawl-walk-run”, Kahotea’s troop attempted the manoeuvre for the first time at night wearing vision-restricting night-vision goggles in full battle dress with no rehearsals.
Hayward said processes dictating “crawl-walk-run” were now in policy, stepping through a process where soldiers tried new techniques in a graduated way.
“It specifically talks about that process. It also specifies day and night. If you’re going to do night activities then you must have done it during the day.”
He said there were also rules stating that when working with foreign militaries, planners and participants for local and offshore forces needed to be trained on the equipment they were using.
Hayward also spoke of how his own role as head of the training branch was itself the result of reforms that took place following the death of Kahotea.
Those reforms were set in motion by the then-Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, who in 2020 ordered a service-wide review into safety and training while overseeing the internal “lessons learned” investigation into Kahotea’s death.
Under questioning from Kahotea’s partner, Dr Sophie Walker, Hayward said Kahotea’s death was one of the incidents that led to the Army Safety and Training Review that carried out system-wide reform.
He said he understood the review led to a project that went beyond training and looked at the wider system and how it could be simplified.
“We couldn’t just fix a single component in the system. We had to fix wider elements as well.”
That led to significant change including “Plan Anzac” which has seen NZDF adopt Australian training policy and processes, with each country having representatives on the other’s military training boards.
The wider project sought to simplify systems with an excess of policies and procedures.
Hayward, under questioning from the coroner, said Kahotea’s was the most recent death in training and serious injuries had halved since 2022.
However, he said it was difficult to understand why that was because a safety tracking system had yet to be completed and so was not yet in use.
The inquest also heard testimony on the critical level the NZSAS operates at with evidence the special forces regiment is one of New Zealand’s three strategic military assets, and one required to be deployed at a moment’s notice. The others are the Navy’s frigates and air force’s Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft.
Hayward said it was a unit that had to be “ready to go … (it was) the 111 of the military”.
His evidence followed testimony from NZSAS soldiers who took the court inside the Black Hawk helicopter on the night of the fatal incident.
The NZSAS soldiers who were led by Kahotea in the helicopter from which he fell spoke of the moments leading up to his death. The men were known by numerical “call signs” to protect their identities.
They spoke of how they had been briefed earlier in the day on how a “wheel bump” took place. They then took part in a series of fast-roping exercises - the action of deploying from a hovering helicopter using a rope to reach the ground.
The intent had been to carry out the wheel bump during the day but, as a number of soldiers recalled, the helicopter needed to refuel and Kahotea’s troop didn’t get a chance to do the wheel bump.
When Kahotea’s troop was preparing to do night fast roping, they learned that the exercise that night was being extended to the wheel bump.
It was, said Soldier 63, an appealing proposition. “It’s always good to get new skills under your belt.” On doing it in the dark, he said: “It didn’t matter to us. We do so much training at night.”
Evidence was heard how there was a last-minute change in the location where they were to be inserted on to a building, meaning the helicopter lined up on a two-storey drop rather than the intended single-store drop.
The change, the inquest heard, significantly extended the distance Kahotea fell and reduced his chances of survival.
They described how they were seated - on the floor or in temporary or permanent seats - in the cramped interior of the Black Hawk, managing gear and weapons, the military working dog and their respective heights. While some of the soldiers were wiry and of average height, Kahotea and at least one other aboard topped six feet.
Soldier 63 said when the Black Hawk helicopter bumped its wheel against the building, he looked out and saw there was no horizontal gap between the helicopter and the building and only a short step down.
“I’m looking ahead, not behind,” he said, explaining how he exited at speed focused on dealing with threats in front of the team on the building they were attacking.
Next came Soldier 86 and the military working dog, Badr. The inquest was told that Badr, like the soldiers, had his name cloaked under operational secrecy at the time but his anonymity was now waived as he had retired and since died in the care of his handler’s family.
In preparation for arriving at the roof, Soldier 86 extended the lead on Badr to ensure there was more room to move with the unfamiliar manoeuvre at height.
The insertion on to the roof went as planned and he, with Badr and Soldier 63, raced across the roof.
Then came Soldier 61 who noted there was a foot-wide gap between the helicopter and the roof when he disembarked. Ahead of doing so, he saw Kahotea kneeling on the helicopter floor, positioning his large frame inside the cramped space, “looking as if he was getting ready to exit the helo”.
Seconds later and about 10 metres across the roof, Soldier 61 glanced back. He saw the helicopter hovering but could not make out Kahotea.
Kahotea was also not seen by the next NZSAS soldier who had his back to the exit but had turned to leave the helicopter.
Soldier 64 described how it was his turn to disembark.
“That’s when I saw the gap and it was one metre,” he said of the distance between the helicopter and building. “I had already decided not to go and wait for the helicopter to get closer.
“I remember looking across and thinking, ‘There’s no way I can get across there’.”
At that point, the US crew chief placed his fist on the soldier’s chest, halting his exit as the helicopter pulled away from the building.
In the minutes that followed, Kahotea’s fall and grievous injuries were communicated across the soldiers who raced to provide medical aid ahead of the Black Hawk taking the fallen soldier to Auckland City Hospital.
Kahotea was pronounced dead early the next morning.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.
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