Detective work led to Erceg's copter
MONDAY , 21 NOVEMBER 2005
By HANK SCHOUTEN
Meticulous detective work by a helicopter pilot and persistence led to the discovery of millionaire Michael Erceg's smashed helicopter.
The bodies of the liquor baron and his Dutch passenger, Guus Klatte, were recovered yesterday.
The wreckage of Mr Erceg's Eurocopter, which disappeared from radar while flying south from Auckland two weeks ago, was found on Saturday in a narrow strip of bush on farmland on the eastern slopes of Mt Karioi, about 20 kilometres south of Raglan.
Lion Foundation rescue helicopter pilot Guy Beange said searchers were directed to the area after Auckland Westpac rescue helicopter pilot Darryl Sherwin had done a careful analysis of error in the radar system that tracked Mr Erceg's fatal flight.
Mr Sherwin said yesterday that, two weeks ago, searchers were advised radar error could be up to 500 meters either side of its last reported radar position. He had flown on an earlier search flight and said that after analysing his own flight path and radar plots – and the radar plot of the missing helicopter – he calculated searchers should look 693 metres east of Mr Erceg's last reported radar position.
It took a few days to find other pilots who could understand what he was talking about and he was delighted when his calculations proved correct.
However, he was not critical of search coordinators. "No doubt something will be learnt from this, but that will come out in the debriefing."
Mr Sherwin said the strip of bush where the helicopter had gone down in a descending turn was in the middle of open farmland. "A second either way and it would have been over an open paddock and they would have found him straight away. Heaps of helicopters might have flown over that same strip of bush without thinking anything could be in there."
Mr Beange said the crash scene was spotted visually, and with the use of infra-red heat-seeking equipment on his Squirrel helicopter.
"There was a small area of damage where the aircraft went in but we also had the benefit of two weeks of dieback, which gave the bush a slightly different colour."
Official search efforts began at Karioi, then rapidly moved south toward Wanganui as possible sightings of the missing helicopter were checked out.
Bill Sommer of the Civil Aviation Authority said crash investigators were likely to be at the crash scene for up to three days. It could take up to nine months to complete the investigation.
Family and friends of the crash victims said yesterday they hoped lessons were learnt from the search.
Independent Liquor director and private search co-ordinator Roger Smith said: "Now is not the time to dwell on any mistakes that may have been made and issues as to how the search was conducted. These questions can be addressed at a later date."