AC - Certainly wasnt maintained to mil standards. The operator was Brett Emeny in New Plymouth. His "maintenance program" for the Huey had just been "approved" by CAA in the last couple of weeks, whatever the hell that means.
Recently CAA was ordered to reopen the investigation of the Wanganui Aero Work UH1H crash that killed Simon Green and his crew. The investigators came to the conclusion that a bolt had not been fastened correctly in the tail rotor and that was the cause of the accident. HOWEVER new evidence came to light that showed they were in error and that the new investigation should focus on the TT straps. Simon's widow, Helene has been pushing for this for a long time and looks like she is being proven right.
Will post here what I find out when they start this new investigation. Getting back to the latest accident and it seems that they are looking at the same cause (speculation of course), as the aircraft came apart in flight and was in pieces before it even hit the ground.
Make sure you have a good close look at your Huey there RH before you go flying again.
Autorotate.