A helicopter only recently rebuilt after a serious crash has been attacked by vandals in what is suspected to be an act of revenge.
The Lakeland Helicopters Bell Huey was attacked in its yard in Murupara with a hammer or similar instrument early on Sunday.
Vandals smashed all the windows and seriously
damaged the machine's instrument panel, causing about $200,000 worth of damage.
The attack was less than a year after the chopper was almost destroyed when pilot Jim Shewan struck high tension power lines while spraying a forestry block near the south Waikato town of Bennydale.
Lakeland Helicopters owner Peter Bradley said he suspected the culprit might have been a cannabis grower whose crop had been in an area recently sprayed with weedkiller, or a hunter whose dog had been made sick from 1080 poison dropped by the helicopter.
"It's hard to tell if it has been linked to some of the work we have been doing lately or whether it was just some kids being destructive, but we have our suspicions," he said.
The vandals scaled a barbed wire fence surrounding the yard where the helicopter was and evaded security guards.
Security camera footage could lead to their arrest.
Staff at Lakeland Helicopters Murupara headquarters were dismayed by the damage to the aircraft.
Chief engineer Keith Brown said it would take at least a week to repair.
"The damage we can see is bad enough, but it is whatever we have not seen first up that has us worried," he said.
The Huey was also used in emergencies and should have been on a permanent standby for fighting fires.
Mr Brown said the firm did not deliberately target cannabis crops. Nor did the police use its helicopters.
Murupara Police Sergeant Rob Hutchins said Lakeland Helicopters had never been used to carry out cannabis operations, nor had the pilots "dobbed in" any marijuana plots they had seen growing.
- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)
