Wanaka helicopter crash

i'm not going to speculate on the cause but its highly unusual for a hughes 500 or any helicopter to crash like this, good weather, flat open terrain, helicopter shuttling people to the work area.... i know someone who's been flying a hughes for decades without major incident, does some work in the mountains...

i'm not implying with this link that this crash has anything in it to do with the cause of the wanaka crash, but it is a detailed article about a previous helicopter crash and the investigation https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/history/what-caused-the-helicopter-crash-that-killed-jerome-box/

> some go back to the 70's, i couldnt tell you the age of this helicopter. According to an article it was a leased helicopter registered as ZK-HOJ, which a quick registry search seems to say is a Hughes 369D leased from Helilink Ltd. https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/wanaka-helicopter-crash-picking-through-the-wreckage/#ath I don't know the actual age but the initial registration seems to be 1981, so at least 37 years old. Is that significant? https://www.caa.govt.nz/script/aircraft-hist?Aircraft_ID=2373

"I don't know the actual age but the initial registration seems to be 1981, so at least 37 years old. Is that significant?" not if its been serviced properly, the airframe would get checked for wear and tear and the aircraft should be maintained to a schedule, after X hours it gets service A, after Y hours gets service B... after Z hours, the engine gets overhauled... the hughes 500's first came out in the late 60's... there are plenty of aircraft safely flying around from the eighties and earlier..

Yea you would think that the Wallis' have enough experience and skill to maintain helicopters properly, especially after the chopper accidents that their family has had. Given the state of the wreckage I suspect that finding the cause will wither take a very long time, or we will simply never know. Do choppers carry a voice or flight data recorder?

the wallis's don't necessarily have anything to do with maintaining their helicopters. its a specialist job often performed by a different company to the company that operates the helicopters and employs the pilots. especially for smaller operators. there was an issue with robinson helicopters and possibly some others getting faulty second hand parts from overseas in the past... i dont recall if it affected hughes 500's,