That 500 was never found helmet fire. There are a surprising number of aircraft still missing in New Zealand, some that you would think should have been found by now. A Tomahawk took off from Ardmore, just south of Auckland many years ago for a training flight in the designated training area, and never came back. Still a family missing down Milford somewhere in their Piper Cherokee 6, and that's from the 70's I think. New Zealand is not very friendly toward lost aircraft. Dense bush that closes over aircraft leaving little or no trace (remember the Heli-Sika MD500??), inaccessible mountain valleys, and glaciers all combine to hide aircraft from the searchers. Darkly coloured aircraft don't help too much either. ELT's seem to be a problem too. Anyone notice that no ELT signal was picked up?? You would think that with a helicopter this new it would have a 406Mhz ELT, that would go straight to a satellite, but it hasn't activated, or, it isn't attached to it's antenna anymore. Was talking to a kiwi accident investigator last year, and he said that of the last 7 helicopter accidents he ahd investigated, the ELT activated in only 2 of those. Food for thought.
Edit so the spelling police don't complain too much
