Query
Hi - I am a friend of those who have passed in this tragedy. We are trying to understand what happened to our friends.
A suggestion has been made on this thread that VH-PRU overnighted on Sunday somewhere due to bad weather and the tragedy occurred on Monday.
Based on my understanding of the timeline I have real doubts about this claim - but I am not from the aviation field and would welcome the input of others.
(All references to flight paths are verifiable via tail numbers included)
SUNDAY
The last flight track for Peter’s helicopter (VH-PRW) ends around 11am on Sunday near Wee Jasper on all but one flight tracker website. Flightaware however. shows it between Jindabyne and Khancoban at 3.16 to 3.26 pm (but says “location only”).
That same day, SUNDAY, a search and rescue plane (RSCU660) (VH-XND) took off from Melbourne at 2.42 pm. It then flew straight to a very narrow search site at Kiandra. It did about 10 circuits before departing. The search site closely matches where Peter’s helicopter was ultimately found by Police and Rescue people around 11:50pm on MONDAY Night (Source - NSW Police announcements)
A rescue helicopter out of Wollongong RSCU230 (VH-TJJ) also looked for VH-PRW on Sunday. At 2.45pm it headed for Wee Jasper - the last radar plotted position of VH-PRU. It arrived there at around 3.45.
MONDAY
RSCU660 returned to the same site at Kiandra on Monday night around 7.30pm. RSCU 230 joined RSCU 660 in the search at Kiandra - operating slightly to the north east.
I suppose there may have been more rescue aircraft operating on Monday during the day - but I am unaware of it at this time. My guess is that alpine visibility was poor during the day. Even for ground personnel.
The wreckage was found by ground crew at Kiandra at 11.50 MONDAY night
So.
TWO rescue aircraft went looking for VH-PRU around 2.45pm on SUNDAY. One of those aircraft went directly to the area of the crash sight. The police stated it was unaware of any distress call from VH—PRU
Is this fact pattern more likely to be consistent with an ELT being triggered by a tragic impact on Sunday, or an overnight on Sunday and an accident sometime on Monday?
Do they normally send 2 aircraft out like that on Sunday without an ELT ?
Last edited by Mark 9876; 9th Apr 2022 at 11:12.