Helicopter crashes into New Zealand river

Helicopter crash Marlborough Fire New Zealand
A helicopter crashed while fighting a fire near Marlborough in New Zealand. Photo from Radio New Zealand.

A firefighting helicopter crashed into a river February 5 while attempting to fill a water bucket in a swift current.

Below is an excerpt from an article at Radio New Zealand:

A helicopter battling the Marlborough blaze crashed into the Wairau River about 11am, leaving the pilot in a stable condition in Wairau Hospital. The 47-year-old local pilot was refilling a monsoon bucket from the Wairau River at about 11am when the chopper went down, landing in shallow water. He was not seriously injured and was able to walk out of the wreckage.

Precision Helicopters chief pilot Matt Newton said the pilot was about 3m about the river when he got into trouble.

“Yeah, he just was loading the bucket out of the river and the river was flowing pretty fast and it pulled the bucket back and one of the ropes hooked around the back of his skid and he couldn’t keep up with it,” he told Checkpoint.

“It was just unfortunate but very lucky that he’s okay, that’s the main thing. We’re just grateful.”

Mr Newton said the pilot tried to untangle the rope but the strong river current dragged the bucket downstream and pulled the helicopter to the ground.

The crash scene is about 300m from the edge of the fire at Onamalutu, which has a perimeter stretching 11km.

There is a report that the helicopter was a Hughes 369HS.

The video below has a couple of still images of the helicopter. Even though the second annoying pop-up does not have a visible “X” which will remove it, hover your mouse over the box and the “X” will appear.

Another wildfire in New Zealand, west of Blenheim, was fought by 11 helicopters and 60 firefighters on the ground, according to a report by Radio New Zealand..

Note from Bill: I would be curious to hear any advice from helicopter pilots about filling a water bucket in a river with a swift current. Is there a safe way to do it? Is the length of the line an important factor in that situation? Have you ever tried to fly along with the current, or is that safe?

Thanks and a tip of  the hat go out to Nate.

Typos, let us know, and please keep in mind the commenting ground rules before you post a comment.

2 thoughts on “Helicopter crashes into New Zealand river”

  1. In 2009 there was a fatal accident involving river-bucketing in Lillooet BC. Situation was a little different though (bigger & faster river, canyon effect, out-of-province pilot during a very busy season). Have a read through the TSB report, it’s pretty illustrative of the incident.

    http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/aviation/2009/a09p0249/a09p0249.asp

    Yes, we are still using rivers as dip-sites and yes, it’s a bit of a safety concern sometimes but as with anything wildfire, it’s a calculated risk with one “no” being a no-go.

    Tragic situation though, my heart goes out to the family and especially the pilots co-workers who witnessed it in the circuit. I hope they got some good CISM counselling and support post-incident.

  2. Glad the pilot came out ok. There have been a few problems with this happening with the line over the skid. Perhaps a fire pilot could comment on some ideas on how to prevent this or deal with it. A friend of mine was monitoring a dip site and saw it happen. The pilot released the bucket and the head snagged on the rear of the skid. The monitor ran down into waist deep water and got it untangled under the unbalanced hovering ship. The pilot called it a day.

Comments are closed.