Chopper crash pair cheat death

TWOCantabrians yesterday had a brush with death – and still got home in time for breakfast.

Just before 8.18am, Bill Hales, 66 and Mickey Broadhurst, 27 were recovering venison in their Hughes 500 helicopter high above Arthur’s Pass when the engine stopped running.

The pilots noticed that they were quickly losing rotor speed about 30km northeast of Otira near Arthur’s Pass.

Hales said he didn’t even have time to panic.

‘‘We may have said a word that rhymed with duck, but the training kicked in. You don’t have time to be worried. I’ve been doing it for 40 years ’’

The pilots managed a brief auto-rotation, a method of using the air rather than the engine to spin the blades, and actually landed the helicopter on its skids in Graft Creek on the West Coast.

According to Hales the whole incident took a maximum of five seconds and was down to pure bad luck rather than any maintenance issue.

Their rescue took a little over an hour. ‘We set the beacon off and we had our own tracking devices and other safety systems in place. We were all back in Hanmer in time for breakfast.’’

Hales said at lunch time that he’d already returned home, had breakfast and done some farm work.

The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) spokesman, Mark Dittmer, said it was amazing the pair had been uninjured.

‘‘They are extremely lucky to have landed and survive the incident. There was some skilled piloting involved.’’

Hales said he’d arrange for the chopper to be air-lifted out tomorrow.