Mt Aspiring helicopter crash: Rotor blades struck mountain, TAIC report finds
Two men were killed when a helicopter crashed in Mt Aspiring National Park after its rotor blades struck a mountain near Wānaka, a new report has found.
Alpine Helicopters pilot Tim Brown and guide Sean Roach died on May 17 while conducting a guided hunting operation.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) has now released an interim final report into the crash.
The day began at about 7am, when two of the operator’s pilots prepared the helicopters for flying. The weather was frosty, but the forecast was for a fine day with little to no wind and clear skies.
The guides, hunter and six passengers arrived shortly after and were given a safety briefing before two helicopters departed Mt Barker about 7.35am, heading north of Mt Aspiring National Park.
A tahr was located in the Landsborough area north of the Haast River and shot by the hunter. It was recovered, and both helicopters landed and shut down to allow photographs to be taken.
The helicopters then flew to an area 24km west of Makarora, where the hunting party spotted a chamois on the north face of Mercury Peak.
A hunter shot the chamois, which fell into a mountain gut.
Brown returned in the helicopter and picked up Roach and the hunter, flying them a short distance to a large flat area.
The hunter and passengers on board got out and waited for the second helicopter.
Brown and Roach then flew up the mountain face to retrieve the chamois.
A cockpit recording about 9.35am showed the helicopter hovering beside a rocky ledge when Roach began exiting through the front left door.
However, the aircraft’s blades struck the mountain.
The main rotor blades were destroyed, and the helicopter fell about 30m down the mountainside, coming to rest at an altitude of about 5700 feet.
One of the passengers who had been dropped off was watching the recovery of the chamois and took a photograph of the helicopter moments before the crash.
The passenger saw the helicopter fall down the mountain face and come to rest below.
Emergency services were notified, and later that day, members of the alpine cliff rescue team and NZ Police recovered the bodies of Brown and Roach.
RCCNZ later advised that an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signal from the accident helicopter had also not been received.
Examination of the accident site and helicopter confirmed the ELT had activated, but a broken aerial had prevented a signal from being transmitted.
TAIC said a full inquiry into the incident is continuing, with a final report setting out findings, safety issues and recommendations, if any, to be issued when the inquiry is complete.
The helicopter was from Alpine Helicopters, owned by members of the Wallis family, with Toby Wallis the chief executive and his older brother, Jonathan, the general manager.
In October 2018, another brother, Nick Wallis, 38, died when a machine he was piloting crashed. Department of Conservation employees Paul Hondelink, 63, and Scott Theobold, 59, both of Twizel, also died in the crash near Wānaka.
That crash came just three months after Nick Wallis’ fourth brother and fellow pilot, Matthew, 39, died in another helicopter crash.
The brothers are the two youngest sons of aviation legend Sir Tim Wallis, who died in 2023.
Jazlyn Whales is a multimedia journalist based in the Christchurch newsroom.