Failing helicopter hit hunter, inquiry finds

Press, 28 April 1982, Page 18

Failing helicopter hit hunter, inquiry finds

PA Wellington An out-of-control helicopter hit a deer hunter, bounced off him, and rolled down a hillside,’air accident investigators have said in a report. The hunter suffered back injuries, but. was able to reach the wreckage of the Hughes helicopter and help the pilot climb free. The two men were capturing live deer in the Paeroa Range, near Reporoa. on October 15 last year when the accident happened. The hunter had been working as a jumper. The helicopter would follow deer and, when close enough, the hunter would jump on to their backs. The report, said that the

first “bulldogging” attempt failed when the jumper missed the deer. On a second attempt, the hunter jumped three or. four feet from a helicopter skid and landed on one animal’s back. The pilot moved the helicopter clear while the hunter secured the captured deer, but was unable to prevent the main rotors striking the hillside when the helicopter began to pitch nose down. "The pilot recalled looking down through the open righthand door at the jumper spreadeagled on the animal as the helicopter descended on to him out of control." the report said. "After he landed on the animal, the jumper heard a

bang. He looked up and saw the helicopter descending towards him obviously out of control. "The helicopter landed on him. injuring his back and rolled down the hill:" The weather at the time was ideal, the report said. However, it was only the second time the pilot and the hunter had worked together and they had still to develop the co-ordinated teamwork necessary for this type of exercise. The pilot suggested that as the hunter leapt off the skid, he had used his'hand on the toe of the skid to steady his jump. This sudden load resulted in a forward movement that the pilot was not expecting. “If this occurred at the same time as the pilot was increasing power and starting to move the aircraft forward, it could have resulted in a pronounced nose-down pitching movement." the report said. However, the jumper believed he was well clear of the helicopter before it started to descend on to him. He believed that the pilot might have misjudged his aircraft's clearance from the hillside and incurred a main rotor strike as he banked the aircraft to see if the deer had been captured.