Wanaka helicopter crash

So sorry to hear that...my condolences to the family involved. Looks like no one know the cause at this stage.

I'm astounded by the "wreckage". I hope they can figure it out.

Absolutely tragic. What little I know of helicopters is to avoid Hughes 500 and Robinsons. The Wallis family have had some real accidents. I recall the Dad surviving a wicked head injury about 20 years ago.

I don't know much about helicopters but do Hughes 500's have a bad record? I thought it was mostly Robinsons that have the reputation.

wallis seniors last accident wasnt in a helicopter Robinson's have the bad reputation i'm not aware of hughes having a reliability reputation there have been a lot of crashes in them in the past when deer culling from helicopters was at its height decades ago.. but a lot of those crashes were around pilot error, operating low to the ground at speed while manouevring aggressively, or operating in bad weather. back then pilots didnt need much training at all to qualify, just a quick conversion training from fixed wing licence, today the training takes a lot more time and the pilots qualify a lot more skilled. theres a claim that the tail section is 100m from the main helicopter crash site robinson's get mast bump sometimes where the roter can literally seperate from the rotor mast if the helicopter is manouevered outside recommended parameters robinson's have far less power than a hughes 500, and have piston engines which are less reliable than the hughes gas turbine engines. but the hughes helicopters have been around for a long time. some go back to the 70's, i couldnt tell you the age of this helicopter.

I'm feeling pretty gutted for Sir Tim & family. He must be wondering what he did wrong in life to have deserved to loose two sons in a matter of months. A tragedy for all family and friends involved. RIP.

Tragic all round. They were all doing what they loved. Condolences to their families, friends and workmates PS, Hughes 500's have had a lot of crashes, more due to their numbers flying, rather than anything. Especially in the deer recovery heyday. Some anti 1080 Facebook pages seem to be performing as loonies as usual, about this.

I spent some time around the Wanaka area in my 20's and feel a strong connection to the area. I feel pretty gutted by this; how much worse for those so much closer. If I was in the loonie camp I'd be keeping my head down right now.

Wasn't suggesting the anti looneys were responsible they just posting stuff, "its karma", "should have been Eugine Sage", "serves them right" etc pretty sick