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The emergency services were alerted to the accident on the Mahia Peninsula at 6.26 am
A pilot has suffered moderate injuries in a helicopter crash on the Mahia Peninsula in Hawke’s Bay.
Emergency services were alerted to the accident by a member of the public at 6.26 a.m.
Rescue Co-ordination Center NZ received a distress alert from a Robinson 44 helicopter at 6 am. The helicopter was doing agricultural work at the time it crashed.
The accident is believed to have occurred near Mahia East Coast Rd.
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Nuhaka firefighter Denal Meihana was the first to arrive on the scene, “expecting the worst”, when he discovered that the pilot had crashed on the side of a steep hill.
“It had landed on the skids, so the helicopter was sitting upright. It was about 400 meters downhill, ”Meihana said.
Meihana said the pilot had managed to get out of the helicopter and was “conscious and talking”, but the helicopter had suffered “substantial damage”.
“Everything was damaged except the upper rotor.”
In addition to the Nuhaka fire brigade, two fire crews from Mahia and the St John ambulance from Wairoa and Gisborne attended.
Supplied
The Lowe rescue helicopter attended a helicopter crash in Mahia on Wednesday morning.
Meihana said the pilot was spraying when he got into trouble, but said the cause of the accident had not yet been determined.
“There was no damage to the power lines, but it was quite windy. Maybe 20 knots. “
The 43-year-old pilot had moderate injuries and was being transported by the Hastings rescue helicopter to Gisborne Hospital. He was later transferred to Waikato Hospital in stable condition.
The pilot had a back injury and a head laceration, a search and rescue source said.
An initial police report incorrectly indicated that the pilot was not injured.
On Tuesday, two people died and three others, all children, were seriously injured when a helicopter crashed into a beach at the mouth of the Kekerengu River, near Kaikōura.
