Wednesday Jan 21, 2009

An investigation into the crash-landing of a helicopter on Mt Ruapehu's crater lake in 2006 has found its load was nearly 20kg too heavy and the pilot had insufficient mountain flying experience.

Taupo pilot Bruce Lilburn and his four passengers were injured when the Hughes 500 they were travelling in went down on the northern edge of the lake.

Lilburn had picked up two Department of Conservation (DOC) officers who had been doing routine work near the crater lake.

He took with him his loader driver from an earlier job and another DOC worker.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) report said one worker questioned whether the helicopter would handle five people and Lilburn responded that they would "see how it goes", or words to that effect.

The pilot did not ask for the weight of any passengers or their packs, although he helped load them on to the helicopter.

Volledig artikel (The New Zealand Herald)

History:
1. Helicopter crash puts five people in hospital (The New Zealand Herald)
2. Helicopter Pilot In Court Over Mt Ruapehu Crash (Voxy.co.nz)