ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 33326
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| Date: | Thursday 1 October 1998 |
| Time: | 15:45 LT |
| Type: |  Aérospatiale AS 350B Ecureuil |
| Owner/operator: | Mission Corp |
| Registration: | ZK-HDE |
| MSN: | 1491 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1981 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | Mt Aurum, Richardson Mountains, Otago -
 New Zealand
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Mt Aurum, Otago |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Aerospatiale AS 350 BA ZK-HDE2, c/n 1491, was built in 1981 and went to Mexico as XA-MOZ before moving up to the US to become N54498 in July of 1988.
It had been imported by McAlpine Helicopters and assembled at Dairy Flat (North Shore)and then registered for M R Evans [North Shore Helicopters] of Auckland on 21-04-1989.
Crashed 01-10-1998: The helicopter was on a private heli-skiing operation. At the end of the third run, the participants decided to "finish up" because wind conditions were becoming unacceptable. The helicopter had been parked and shut down at the bottom of the run and was facing into the prevailing southwesterly breeze. The three passengers loaded their skis and equipment and boarded the helicopter. The pilot started the engine, and while still at flight-idle rpm, the helicopter was struck by a severe gust of wind from the north. The machine weathercocked on the snow surface and slid rearwards over a bank, rolling and tumbling some distance before coming to rest inverted. All occupants were strapped in and were uninjured, although one passenger had to be dug free from snow that had entered the damaged cabin area. The pilot had not experienced any difficulty in placing the passengers at the top of their ski-runs, and only calm to light wind conditions had been encountered while the helicopter was parked between runs.
Aircraft recovered and repaired, and on 02-07-1999 it was transferred to Helicopters (NZ) Ltd of Nelson. It has served overseas for Helicopters (NZ) in Laos, and several trips to the Antarctic with the German, Italian and Korean teams.
It had a brief ownership change to Helicopters Queenstown from 27-08-2010 but returned to Helicopters (NZ) Ltd on 21-11-2010. Registration ZK-HDE was cancelled as exported on 07-12-2010.
Sources:
1. http://www.caa.govt.nz/Script/Accident_Details.asp?Oc=98/2759
2. http://nzcivair.blogspot.com/2010/12/another-export-aerospatiale-as-350-ba.html
3. http://www.griffin-helicopters.co.uk/accidentdetails.aspx?accidentkey=2282
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 24-Jun-2014 18:50 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 02-Feb-2022 03:10 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location, Departure airport] |
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