The helicopter that crashed in Mt Aspiring National Park in May, killing pilot Tim Brown and hunting guide Sean Roach, fell about 30 metres down a mountainside after its main rotor blades struck the rock face, according to an interim report released by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) on Thursday.
The report also shows the helicopter’s emergency locator beacon switched itself on during the crash but never reached rescuers, because its aerial had broken. TAIC recorded the same failure after a helicopter crash on Mount Pirongia in 2023.
Brown and Roach died on 17 May on the north face of Mercury Peak, about 24 kilometres west of Makarora. They were working for The Alpine Group, which trades as Alpine Helicopters, on an aerial-assisted trophy hunting trip. In this kind of hunt a helicopter is used to find the animal, then the hunter is dropped off with a guide to shoot it.
The interim report sets out the morning in detail. The operator had moved two helicopters the day before to a private property near Mt Barker, because low cloud or fog was forecast for Wanaka Aerodrome. The weather on the day was frosty, but the forecast was for a fine day with little to no wind and clear skies. Two pilots, two guides, one hunter and six passengers left Mt Barker at about 7.35am after a safety briefing. The passengers had come along to watch.
The hunter first shot a tahr in the Landsborough area north of the Haast River. Both helicopters landed so the group could take photographs, and the tahr was loaded into the lead helicopter’s external cargo pod. The group then flew on to Mercury Peak, where they spotted a chamois.
The guide and hunter were dropped nearby while the pilot moved the helicopter a safe distance away. The chamois was shot and fell into what the report calls a gut, a narrow deep ravine or gully. The pilot then picked up the guide and hunter and flew them a short distance to a large flat area, where the hunter and two passengers got out to wait for the second helicopter.
The pilot and guide then flew up the mountain face to retrieve the chamois. The helicopter carried a cockpit camera that also records flight data, and it was recovered from the site. “The recording showed the accident helicopter was hovering by a rocky ledge. The guide was exiting the accident helicopter through the front left door when the accident sequence started,” the report says. “Marks on the rocks and tussock grass at the accident site showed that the main rotor blades had contacted the mountain face.”
The blades were destroyed and the helicopter fell about 30 metres, coming to rest at an altitude of about 5,700 feet. One of the passengers waiting on the flat was watching the recovery and took a photograph of the helicopter moments before the crash, then saw it fall. That photograph and the cockpit camera put the time of the accident at 9.35am.
The second helicopter landed just out of view a few seconds later. Its pilot manoeuvred above the wreckage and directed the second guide on the ground to the two men, and the guide radioed back that neither had survived. The operator started its emergency response plan and called emergency services, and the Rescue Coordination Centre was advised at 9.47am. The second pilot flew five of the passengers back to Wanaka. Helicopters sent by the rescue centre collected the three people still on the mountain and took them to Makarora, and the alpine cliff rescue team and Police recovered the two men later that day.
TAIC describes the job of an emergency locator transmitter as switching on automatically in a crash and sending a signal by satellite that alerts the Rescue Coordination Centre. In this case the centre later advised that no signal had been received. “Examination of the accident site and helicopter confirmed that the ELT had activated but a broken aerial had prevented a signal from being transmitted,” the report says. On this occasion the alarm was raised by the second crew, and the rescue centre knew of the crash within 12 minutes.
TAIC found the same problem after a Kawasaki BK117 helicopter on a patient recovery flight crashed on Mount Pirongia on 19 September 2023. All three crew survived. In its final report, published in April 2025, the commission wrote, “The ELT activated as intended, but was unable to transmit a signal because its antenna broke off during the accident sequence.” That report noted TAIC had already made recommendations to the Civil Aviation Authority to improve beacon performance, in 2014 and 2023, and that tracking and locating technology had been on the commission’s watchlist since 2015.
The interim report also gives details of the aircraft and pilot. The helicopter, an Airbus AS350-B3 registered ZK-IJW, was built in 2009 and had flown 8,618 hours. Its last annual review of airworthiness was completed on 7 August 2025. The pilot, aged 36, held a commercial helicopter licence and a current medical certificate, and had about 6,625 hours of flying experience, 3,570 of them on this type of helicopter.
When the pair were named in May, The Alpine Group said in a statement reported by RNZ on 18 May, “We are devastated to confirm that both pilot Tim Brown and guide Sean Roach were tragically killed. Both were highly experienced and valued members of a close-knit team.” The company said then that it would cooperate fully with investigators.
The report sets out how the inquiry has run so far. The Civil Aviation Authority notified TAIC on the day of the crash, a protection order was placed over the site, the wreckage, maintenance records and recorded data, and investigators reached the site the next day. The wreckage was lifted out on 23 May. The operator found the cockpit camera some distance from the wreckage during its own search outside the main debris trail, and handed it to TAIC on 24 May. A draft was sent to six interested parties at the end of July. One made a detailed submission, one had no comment and four did not respond.
An interim report records only the facts established so far. TAIC says its final report will set out findings, safety issues and any recommendations, and that its contents may differ from the interim version. No date has been given for it. Under the law that sets up the commission, its purpose is to work out the circumstances and causes of accidents so they are not repeated, “rather than to ascribe blame to any person.” Its findings cannot be used in criminal, civil or regulatory action.
Using a helicopter for trophy hunting on public conservation land needs a concession from the Department of Conservation, and the last round of permits covered 62 pre-approved blocks in the South Island. Separately from the crash, DOC says the Minister has started a review of those permits and new applications are on hold until it is finished. The 2022 to 2025 permits were due to expire on 31 August 2026, and existing holders could keep operating under them by giving notice by 30 May. DOC expects to tell them the outcome of the review by 30 September.
Have you flown with a heli-hunting or alpine helicopter operator, or do you work in backcountry aviation? What would you want the final report to look at? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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