An inquest has begun into the 2019 death of NZSAS soldier Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea. The inquest has seen unusual security precautions as members of the elite unit gather to give evidence. David Fisher reports.
Footage showing the moment an NZSAS soldier fell from a Black Hawk helicopter, suffering fatal injuries, was shown at the inquest into his death today.
The grainy and shadowed footage captured the moments Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea, 30, fell during a flawed training exercise in 2019 at the NZ Defence Force’s Battle Training Facility in South Auckland.
Kahotea’s whānau told Coroner Tania Tetitaha they wanted the footage public to protect the lives of military personnel in future scenarios.
Kahotea’s partner, Dr Sophie Walker, told the inquest that he died when the United States special forces Black Hawk helicopter moved away from the building against which it was hovering.
In an opening statement on behalf of Kahotea’s whānau, Walker said responsibility for his death was not only that of the Night Stalker pilot flying the UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter that night.
She said responsibility was shared with the NZ Defence Force which failed to uphold risk management basics in an atmosphere of “excitement and deference” over the NZSAS training with United States’ Green Berets and the Night Stalkers.
“It was akin to a younger sibling being able to play with an older sibling’s toys without insisting on the usual rules,” she said.
“The training system of ‘crawl-walk-run’ and usual processes were abandoned in excitement and awe of the big brother and his shiny helicopter.”
Kahotea was a decorated NZSAS soldier and a father. He died during the 2019 training exercise when the NZSAS hosted the Green Berets and Night Stalkers at the NZ Defence Force’s Battle Training Facility in South Auckland.
Kahotea and other NZSAS soldiers were exiting the Black Hawk helicopter in a technique known as a “wheel bump” in which the aircraft is pushed against the top of a building using the wheel as a brace, allowing passengers to step off to the roof in a rapid assault.
It is a technique that NZDF does not use and which the NZSAS had not previously - or since - trained in. It was included in the training session that day at the request of the visiting US personnel.
It saw Kahotea’s troop of soldiers carrying out the manoeuvre for the first time at night in full battle dress, contrary to the NZSAS’ usual “crawl-walk-run” practice involving graduated rehearsals.
WorkSafe sought to prosecute NZDF for causing Kahotea’s death through numerous safety failings but was blocked from doing so after the Chief of Defence Force exercised a special waiver protecting the military from prosecution when carrying out operational activities. The training exercise was designated as operational counter-terrorism training.
Walker introduced herself as an experienced scientific adviser with extensive experience in risk identification in high-risk environments, including in military systems. She has previously told the Herald she met Kahotea through her work at the NZSAS headquarters in Papakura.
She said the “bump” insertion being attempted was not a “benign manoeuvre” but a high-risk technique that produced strong physical forces.
She said the 10-tonne weight of the Black Hawk airframe was subject to significant movement that “can rapidly amplify into metres of displacement”.
Walker said the last-minute decision of the US pilot to change the location of the drop-off point on the training house - from the first floor to the second - “invalidated the (NZDF) risk plan” and removed safety planning.
“This was not a minor tactical adjustment,” she said, saying the change along with the exercise being carried out for the first time at night, with night-vision goggles and in full battle kit, should have required a pause and reassessment before carrying out the technique.
Walker said several witnesses would tell the inquest the wheel meant to help hold the helicopter against the building had actually lost contact.
Further, she said, the pilot of the Black Hawk from which Kahotea fell was not qualified at the time of the exercise in using the night-vision goggles they were wearing.
Walker dismissed the findings - as has NZDF - of a US investigation, which found Kahotea had tripped on metal stanchions jutting out of the roof and cited over-confidence as an underlying factor.
“Physics does not respond to confidence. Geometry does not defer to experience. In an unstable one-wheel contact condition, individual behaviour becomes largely irrelevant once the system is out of confidence.
“Nicholas’s risk was created upstream - by pilot decision-making, aircraft handling, and the absence of enforced safety controls, not by personal choice.”
Walker said evidence put to the inquiry would show these lapses in risk management happened in the context of wider Army training issues highlighted in a system-wide review.
She said the review - discovered through a Herald investigation - showed the Army had classed its own training as “fundamentally unfit for purpose”.
For the whānau, she said the identified issues with training on the night and wider systemic issues identified in a review ordered by Major General John Boswell, chief of Army at the time, raised questions about whether it was appropriate for NZDF to rely on a legal exemption to avoid WorkSafe prosecution.
“While the Army was internally acknowledging that its training system was fragmented and unfit for purpose, it simultaneously relied on a poorly articulated waiver as a shield against accountability.”
Walker said the whānau saw a “profound disconnect” in the Army admitting systemic failures in an internal review while seeking legal protection “rather than addressing the underlying causes that placed personnel in harm’s way”.
“This inquest matters because Nik’s death was an avoidable consequence of dangerous training. This inquest matters because Nik’s death was preventable.”
Walker asked the coroner to examine whether the issues highlighted in NZDF’s internal Court of Inquiry process were enough to address the failings that led to the incident.
She said Kahotea’s whānau also wanted the inquest to examine whether the military should be able to escape oversight from watchdogs such as WorkSafe.
The hearing opened with a statement from NZDF in which lawyer Sally McKechnie described Kahotea’s death as a “tragic accident” in the context of “failures on the day in relation to the planning and authorisation” of the training exercise.
McKechnie directly addressed the High Court action that thwarted WorkSafe’s prosecution, saying that the counter-terrorism training being carried out on the day Kahotea died was “appropriately exempt” from health and safety law as an operational activity.
“NZDF is aware that this outcome was frustrating and potentially confusing to Lance Corporal Kahotea’s whānau. In this regard, NZDF wishes to note that its defence of those proceedings was not driven by a wish to absolve it of all responsibility in relation to LCpl Kahotea’s death.
“NZDF acknowledges there were failures on the day in relation to the planning and authorisation of the bump landing exercise.”
In the statement handed up, she said the context in which the NZSAS “must operate” was relevant as its activities “involve a degree of risk”.
“While it can and should be mitigated, it cannot be avoided.”
The hearing is also hearing evidence from the NZSAS soldiers led by Kahotea on the night he died.
A group of NZSAS soldiers, and one former member of the regiment, were present to testify with non-publication orders in place to protect their identities.
The emotionally fraught nature of the hearing was plain as the court heard how close those soldiers were to Kahotea’s immediate family, Walker - who worked alongside the men - and his former partner with whom he had a child. The two groups greeted each other warmly and Kahotea’s family offered thanks for their service alongside the fallen soldier.
The first soldier to testify, known as “63”, had responded to questions from Catherine Cull, KC, counsel assisting the coroner, about when those aboard knew when to disembark.
He said the dispatcher controlled the exit by indicating when soldiers should go but added: “We are trained to be thinkers not robots.” He said nobody would think less of any member of the NZSAS who considered it was not safe to conduct any activity and raised those concerns.
The soldier also testified the meaning of full battle dress, saying weapons were carried and there was gear protruding up to 15cms in front with body armour, ammunition and grenades, and up to 40cm out the back with body armour, a backpack or cutting gear used to access rooms.
He said the weight would have been at a minimum 20kg in weight and - under questioning from the coroner - could reach a minimum of 35kg during similar training.
In response to questions from Caleb Kahotea, Nik Kahotea’s younger brother, Soldier 63 agreed the change in location from one side of the building to the other - a last-minute switch - changed the survivability from a fall by making the insertion point two storeys above the ground, rather than a single storey.
Asked what changes the event had brought about to him personally, the soldier responded: “As a trainer now, this emphasised without a doubt the importance of ‘crawl-walk-run’.”
He said the dictum was known already but it underscored the importance of following it, and speaking out if there was any doubt.
Soldier 63 said the briefing on the day matched his personal experience of what transpired during the training exercise and he was happy proceeding as he did ahead of Kohatea’s turn to disembark. He also said of the exercise: “It could have been done better.”
The court also saw a recreation of the seating in the Black Hawk on the night of the incident with chairs from the courtroom arranged to simulate the interior of the aircraft.
The construct with chairs had one of the soldiers - known by the designation “86” - describe to the coroner and gathered lawyers the layout inside the helicopter, where the US pilots were positioned and the location of the two US dispatchers who controlled the exit of the soldiers.
The hearing will continue tomorrow with evidence from others aboard the Black Hawk that night.
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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