Helicopter missing in New Zealand: Jan 2004

[Hughesy]

Just heard. A Helicopter is missing in New Zealand.
Thoughts and prayers go out to pilots and family.:(

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3542050&thesection=news&thesubsection=general (http://)

[Autorotate]

Hughesy - Machine is HNW, green coloured C model based in Hamilton.

Was speaking to Over The Top and outcome is not looking good, in dense cloud, at 8500ft using hand held GPS and attempting to make GPS approach into Milford while IMC.

Hope God is smiling on him because **** knows he is going to need every ounce of luck to get out of this. I just spoke to the guy, CM three days ago when he called and subscribed.

Autorotate.

[Steve76]

Auto ...

Was he IFR rated?
Lets hope for the best.

[Autorotate]

Seriously doubt it, newbie to the industry, first helo from what I understand, but may be wrong. Choppy was telling me that he took off from ZQN early yesterday morning in very very ****ty weather heading for Milford. Couldnt get there so landed at one of the mountain huts, which technically is a no no, but it kept them safe. He was with some blond girl when he left ZQN.

Then last contact was with Milford Tower at approx 8.10 this morning when he said he was IMC, approx 9 miles from Milford but didnt know which direction on a heading of I think either 172 or 272. He was using a hand held GPS and the machine was an old 369HS so I doubt it had anything fancy in it.

That was the last communications heard. Choppy said weather today was absolute crap and supposed to be the same tomorrow as well. By 10.10 he would have been out of fuel. The problem was if he was at 8500 ft the mountains all around him are up to 9500ft and the tower had cloud down nearly to the water.

Our prayers are with CM but the outcome is not looking great.

Autorotate.

Search For Chopper HIts Bad Weather
03/01/2004 06:22 PM
NewstalkZB

Thick cloud and strong westerlies are hampering the search for a missing helicopter.

Last radio contact with the Hughes chopper with two people on board was just before nine o'clock on Saturday morning.

At that point they were travelling to Milford Sound for extra fuel after spending the night at a hut on the Routeburn Track.

Four helicopters are searching all the possible routes they could have taken.

[Hughesy]

Hey Auto..

Any word yet. I rang my mate down there who works at Over the Top, he said the weather isn't that flash.

Hughesy

[Autorotate]

Spoke to Jeff Shanks wife Nat this morning and she said there are a few machines out looking even though the weather isnt flash.

Hannibal is out there as is Southwest Helicopters, Colin Tuck from the West Coast and a couple of others, as well as Shanks himself.

The advantage that these guys have flying around in this weather is that they have all been flying this area for twenty plus years and know it like the back of their hand.

Everyone agrees it looks grim but since the ELT hasnt been activated there is a very slim chance.

Autorotate.

[Hughesy]

Some hope maybe?

Going by the NZ Herald, there has been a cell phone signal coming from the area and they are trying to locate it.

Hughesy

[Time Out]

Search for missing helicopter finally gets off ground
04 January 2004

The weather in Fiordland finally cleared enough this afternoon to allow an aerial search for a helicopter, missing since yesterday morning.

Rescue efforts in the rugged terrain between Te Anau and Milford have been hampered by low cloud and strong wind, but spokesman for the National Search and Rescue Co-ordination Centre, Paul Harrison, said an aircraft was able to get off the ground shortly after 3pm today.

They were continuing to search, weather permitting, until just before dark tonight and would begin again at first light tomorrow.

The pilot and his female passenger, both thought to be aged in their 20s, took off in their four-seater Hughes 369HS from Howden Hut on the Routeburn Track, west of Queenstown, yesterday morning about 7.50am.

The weather was poor in the area at the time, but the pilot managed to climb the private helicopter to about 2600m (8500ft) and headed, in cloud, towards Milford.

About 9.50am, the pilot spoke to an air traffic advisor at Milford advising that he was about 12km from the airfield, but was still in cloud and asked for advice on how to get to the airfield safely.

There was no further communication from the helicopter and no search and rescue beacon signal was activated.

Mr Harrison said rescuers had been able to do little until this afternoon.

"The search aircraft have finally been able to get airborne and do some searching some areas of interest. . . The weather up until now has been pretty bad," he said.

"We've got quite a big area, 500sqkm, to have a look at and it's pretty rugged terrain. They are really only getting to have a look at it now."

The search area was a rough triangle from where the Homer Tunnel Rd turns left at the top of the Hollyford Valley, across to the Milford Airfield, and from the airfield back to the Hollyford Track area of the valley.

Six helicopter search teams flew at a low level through the Hollyford Valley to a position at the Hidden Falls Hut yesterday and were to remain there until weather conditions allowed them to take up the search.

While the pilot had said he was only about 12km from Milford, Mr Harrison said the search area was mountainous and covered in dense bush.

"The trouble is with that terrain, you could be half a kilometre from Milford and not be able to be seen," he said.

The pilot had not filed a flight plan or requested a search and rescue watch from the Airways communication system.

At one stage rescuers thought the pilot's cellphone might be able to narrow the search area. Cellphones search for cell tower sites to find the closest or best reception and it was thought the pilot's phone may still be switched on, showing which cell site area it was in.

However, the theory did not pan out.

"They got a Telecom engineer up there this morning and found that unfortunately it was the other way around, it was the cell sites trying to access the phone to tell it, it had messages waiting," Mr Harrison said.

Cellphones were often used for communication by those in helicopters and light aircraft, but could not be used in commercial and passenger aircraft.

Mr Harrison said he could not release the names of the man and woman and did not know what their relationship was.

source (http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2774266a11,00.html)

So disappointing, re the phone.

[Autorotate]

Interesting to see that they would try the cellphone route as everyone, at least locals anyway, know that Milford has no cellphone coverage.

Will see what tomorrow brings.

Autorotate.

[Time Out]

Missing helicopter should not have been flying, say other flyers

05.01.2004
By STUART DYE

A helicopter missing with two people on board in Fiordland was probably the only aircraft flying in the area at the time, as weather conditions were unsuitable, flight operators say.

Aviation industry sources said low cloud meant it was not a day for commercial tourist aircraft to be flying.

"It was time to go home," one Queenstown helicopter operator said.

The bad weather continued to hamper search efforts yesterday.

The pilot of the private four-seater Hughes 369HS is believed to be Campbell Montgomerie of Taupiri, in the Waikato.

His passenger is thought to be a British woman. Both are in their 20s and were on holiday.

Te Anau Department of Conservation duty ranger Alistair Pearce said the pair stayed at the Howden Hut, on the Routeburn Track west of Queenstown, on Friday night after the weather forced their helicopter to land.

The helicopter took off at 7.50am the next day, heading for Milford Sound, and was last heard from an hour later.

National Rescue Co-ordination Centre (NRCC) spokesman Paul Harrison said that by the time the search was suspended at 7 last night searchers had still not been able to get into the higher altitude areas they were interested in, because of poor weather.

The 500sq km search area is a triangle between the Hollyford Valley, the Homer Tunnel and the Milford Airfield.

Six helicopter teams from Te Anau, Milford and Franz Joseph involving about 20 people are involved in the search effort.

"We have been searching between about 4000ft and 5000ft today, well below the area we are interested in," Mr Harrison said.

When the pilot, who had about 300 hours' experience in the helicopter, last made contact with the Milford airfield at 8.50am, he was in cloud about 12km from the Milford airfield and asking for advice on the best route through the mountainous area in the poor flying conditions.

He did not sound distressed and had climbed to 2590m.

The only Hughes 369HS helicopter registered in the Waikato belongs to Featherstone Contracting Ltd of Hamilton.

Campbell Montgomerie is one director, and the others are Ian and Elizabeth Montgomerie of Auckland.

source (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3542166&thesection=news&thesubsection=general)

and similar in this report (http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2774346a10,00.html)

[Autorotate]

Few pics showing the area where they are looking.

http://www.new-zealand.com/RedBoats/images/maps.gif

[Autorotate]

Helicopter Sighting May Help Search
05/01/2004 04:28 PM
NewstalkZB

A sighting of a helicopter on the day that one went missing in Milford Sound may have shed some light on the disappearance.

A pilot and his female passenger have not been heard from for two days.

Search coordinator Jim McLean says two trampers told police on Monday morning that they saw a helicopter a few kilometres south of where the helicopter was last reported, just five minutes after it last made contact.

A police vehicle is in the valley checking if the weather is clear enough for helicopters to search the area.

He says they have not given up hope of finding the pilot and passenger alive, but the likelihood of that fades with every passing hour.

[RDRickster]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2004/January/theworld_January61.xml&section=theworld

[Autorotate]

Thats old news and was proved incorrect, see above thread.

Autorotate.

P.S. Just spoke to guys in Queenstown and still no sign.

[Time Out]

Fresh sightings of missing helicopter reported
06 January 2004

Police are appealing for further sightings of a helicopter missing in Fiordland since Saturday with two people aboard as they try to chart its flight path.

Five local helicopters searched unsuccessfully from 6am today for the four-seater Hughes 369HS. The search was to continue until 9pm.

Senior Sergeant Olaf Jensen, of Te Anau police, said that further witnesses had come forward after two trampers yesterday supplied fresh information about where the helicopter was heading.

Hamilton pilot Campbell Montgomerie, 27, and his passenger Hannah Rose Timings, 28, of Cheltenham, England, set off at 7.50am on Saturday from Howden Hut, on the Routeburn Track west of Queenstown, heading for Milford Sound.

The pilot last contacted the Milford control tower just before 9am.

Yesterday rescuers redirected their search after two trampers walking the Greenstone Track in Fiordland reported seeing a helicopter flying south in the Lake McKellar area toward the Livingstone Mountains at 9am.

Last night, another witness told police of seeing the helicopter in the Caples Valley area before 9am – the Caples River joins the Greenstone River before entering Lake Wakatipu's western shore.

Another witness also saw a helicopter between 8am and 9am near Lake Gunn which is next to the Milford-Te Anau Highway.

Mr Jensen said while the sightings were relatively far apart the distance would be short for a helicopter to cover.

"It's a reasonably large area, but in the weather conditions this helicopter could possibly have been flying around trying to find a way to get through."

Mr Jensen said the more sightings that came in the clearer picture searchers would have of Mr Montgomerie's flight path.

He appealed for motorists on the highway and trampers in the Routeburn or Hollyford Valley who saw the forest green helicopter before it disappeared to contact police.

"The more sightings we have the better idea we have of where the helicopter has flown."

Sightings indicated a different area to search than the location given to the Milford Tower.

"He's called in a position. . .but there is an hour between the time he took off until then and with the more sightings we have and timings (of sightings) we'll be able to pinpoint the route he's taken."

source (http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2776366a10,00.html)

Autorotate - your thoughts?

[Steve76]

Who knows what's happening?

[reynoldsno1]

Everything is grounded again due low cloud, heavy rain & TS. The search teams seem confident the aircraft is not above the bushline - the bush will be the main impediment in the search - it's real tiger country down there....

[407 Driver]

For those of you who are not familiar with the Milford Sound area, here is a picture that I took in May 03.
This is very difficult terrain to search.....

http://www.helicopterservice.com.au/photos/pprune/Milford%20Weather%202.jpg

[Autorotate]

And imagine trying to find a dark green 500C in there.

Was talking to friends in Queenstown yesterday and hope is fading that they will ever find them. No ELT ever went off and its been nearly a week now.

Autorotate.

[colinswales]

My brother who is chopper test pilot directed me to this forum.
I know the girl Hannah and I guess it's looking grim. But please keep posting anything that might prove helpful in the search.
thanks
Colin
Ashland, Oregon, USA

[Hughesy]

This the latest from the Web.

The search for a helicopter missing in the Milford Sound area has been suspended.

It is a week since pilot Campbell Montgomerie and his passenger Hannah Timings were last heard from.

The National Search and Rescue Coodination centre says search efforts by several helicopters Friday were again unsuccessful.

It says the length of time since the Hughes 369 was reported overdue and weather-related survival factors have influenced to the decision to put the search on hold.

[Practice Auto 3,2,1]

It appears that Ms Timings is from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire acording to the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/3384765.stm

[Hughesy]

Search for missing helicopter passengers called off

10.01.2004
10.10am
A search for the two people aboard the helicopter that went missing over northern Fiordland a week ago has been called off, rescuers confirmed today.

The search would only be re-activated if "fresh information" was received, National Rescue Co-ordination Centre (NRCC) co-ordinator Ray Parker said.

The decision to indefinitely suspend the search operation was made late last night.

Aboard the missing helicopter were 27-year-old pilot Campbell Montgomerie from Hamilton and his 28-year-old English passenger, Hannah Rose Timings.

The pair had now been missing since last Saturday and bad weather in Fiordland would have impaired the ability of anyone to survive beyond seven days, Mr Parker said.

"One of the things that Search and Rescue doesn't do is concern itself with looking for missing aircraft or finding wreckage.

"We are concerned with saving lives and a search assessment is made on the possibility of survivors."

The weather had frustrated air searches, he said.

"However, at the end of yesterday's flying we'd covered all those areas we would have wished to cover, it just took longer than anticipated.

"There will be no further search activities until there is fresh information."

Mr Parker declined to say what the fresh information could include.

There was the possibility of ongoing private searches by the missing pair's family and friends, he said.

Friends and family of Ms Timings, including her aunt and her father who had travelled from England, were believed to still be in Te Anau.

[colinswales]

Hannah and Campbell must have some very loyal friends down there.
Thanks to all the search teams for persevering in such difficult conditions....

New Search for Backpacker Missing in 'Copter Crash
http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2401145
By Lucy Rodgers, PA News


Search and rescue teams looking for a British backpacker missing in New Zealand have started to scour the area on foot, police said today.

Some 30 teams are searching the Fiordland area of the country’s South Island for traces of the helicopter which disappeared with 28-year-old Hannah Timings and pilot Campbell Montgomerie, 27, on board.

Ms Timings, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and Mr Montgomerie, from Hamilton, New Zealand, lost contact with air traffic controllers on January 3, while flying in poor weather.

It is feared they crashed between Queenstown and Milford Sound in the Fiordland National Park.

After a number of helicopter searches failed to find any trace of the pair or their helicopter, rescue workers are now attempting to find them on foot.

Constable Finn Murphy of Te Anau police, which is co-ordinating the search, said: “There are 30 ground search teams and two helicopters currently out there.

“They are searching the close-cover ground, covered with dense vegetation, which cannot be seen clearly from the air.

“They are particularly searching an area called Hollyford Valley because it was near to here that people said they heard a machine, which could have been the helicopter.

“If it went into the trees we would be unlikely to spot it from the air.”

Mr Murphy said the teams would be starting from the top of the ridges, working their way to the valley below.

Bryan Nicholson, spokesman for the British High Commission in New Zealand, confirmed the search for the pair was continuing.

“The last information that we have is that the search is continuing on foot,” he said. “Weather permitting they will be out on foot and there will be a number of teams.”

Police in Te Anau had called off the air search at the end of last week and said it must be presumed that the Ms Timings and Mr Montgomerie were dead.

It is now down to rescuers on foot to check the mountainous area where the four-seater privately-owned helicopter was lost.

Ms Timings, who worked as a furniture buyer in London between her travels, had been visiting friends in New Zealand since October and was due to return to the UK in March.

Her brother, Sam Timings, 25, described his sister as a seasoned traveller who could not settle for long. Her father, Philip, has flown to New Zealand to assist with the search.

Ms Timings and Mr Montgomerie, took off at 7.50am on Saturday January 3 local time (1850 GMT Friday) from Howden Hut, west of Queenstown, and were heading for Milford Sound.

Just under an hour later Mr Montgomerie radioed Milford Sound air traffic control saying he was in cloud and asked for directions through the mountains.

Police said contact was lost six minutes later.

[Time Out]

Hunt for lost helicopter in Hollyford Valley suspended
14 January 2004
By BRUCE FRASER

Ground parties yesterday searched steep forested slopes on the western side of the Hollyford Valley but did not find a helicopter missing with two people aboard since January 3.

After arriving back in Te Anau at 9.30 last night, search controller John De Lury said the search had now been suspended.

Two helicopters had placed 35 searchers in nine groups near the bushline in an area between Caples Creek and Gunn's Camp.

Some climbed down to valley level during the day, searching the steep valley sides, which had a high bush canopy that made it hard to see into from the air. Others headed up to the bush line and there were also aerial searches by two helicopters.

The search area was believed to be where the helicopter's last radio call was made.

Friends and family members of pilot Campbell Montgomerie, 27, of Hamilton, and his 28-year-old passenger Hannah Rose Timings, of Cheltenham, England, spent the day at the operation's base at the Hollyford airstrip waiting for news.

Mr Montgomerie's father Ian said he wished to thank the search team and all the people supporting the search effort.

Ms Timings' father Phil said he was very grateful for the strong support he had seen in Te Anau for the search.

"All sorts of people – a lady who turned up with cakes at the search base yesterday – she just came in." Far more searchers than expected had volunteered, he said. More and bigger search groups had been deployed as a result.

"I don't know what more can be done – short of cutting every tree down. It's just the way it is.

"It just goes with the territory.

She was not a boring person – she was a very clever, adventurous girl, a girl who wanted to see the world.

"She was a woman, of course, but she was my girl.

"I thought, coming over here, I was going to bring her home – but now I'm going home without her." Ms Timings, who worked as a fashion furniture designer at Viscount Linley, met Mr Montgomerie before Christmas, through mutual friends, and just hit it off, he said.

The searchers needed more information, such as reports from trampers or hunters.

"They're going on little scraps of information now.

They could be just a valley away – who knows." During the coroner's inquiry Mr Timings planned to raise the issue of why the helicopter's locator beacon did not activate.

source (http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2782190a11,00.html)

[touring_pilot]

"A specialist police search team will be dispatched to a Fiordland valley this morning after the wreckage of a helicopter was discovered above the snowline.

Police were advised about 4pm yesterday that people on a sightseeing helicopter flight over the Hollyford Valley had spotted what appeared to be the wreckage of a helicopter in the Humboldt Creek area.

Police from Queenstown flew into the area in the early evening to confirm the sighting and were able to complete a limited investigation at the scene.

A police search and rescue and alpine cliff rescue staff are to travel to the site this morning with the aim of identifying the helicopter and conducting a scene examination.

Senior Sergeant Dave Raynes, of Invercargill police, said the wreckage was believed to be several years old.

‘‘Most of the time it would be covered in snow,’’ he said.

Raynes said police had some idea of the identity of the crashed helicopter but did not want to make it public before informing families of those who were believed to have been on board.

‘‘We have some idea what the helicopter was and who was on it — we are going up to confirm it.’'

"We don't know for sure - there are a number of missing helicopters in New Zealand. It appears to be a number of years old.''

stuff.co.nz

[krypton_john]

My understanding is that it is an MD500 that went missing in 2004 with 2 POB.

[Te_Kahu]

Helicopter Wreckage Found In Fiordland - national | Stuff.co.nz (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7981447/Wreckage-likely-from-2004-chopper-crash)

The wreckage of a helicopter discovered in Fiordland yesterday is believed to be a chopper which went missing with a Waikato man and English tourist on board nearly nine years ago.

Glacier Southern Lakes Helicopters pilot Brendan Hiatt yesterday discovered the wreckage of the helicopter partially emerged in snow when he took tourists on a sightseeing flight over Hollyford Valley.

[tartare]

Covered this story in a previous life as a journo, very mysterious the way it just vanished.
Remember some SAR speculation at the time that the EPIRB antenna may have snapped off or been damaged in the impact - hence inability to find it.
I thought they weren't vulnerable to that sort of thing happening?
A remote and very beautiful part of the country...

[heli-cal]

I remember this incident, there was a message sent from the aircraft saying that they were in bad weather...

I'd always hoped that they'd be found and it's good that they finally have been.

[Motion Lotion]

that the EPIRB antenna may have snapped off or been damaged in the impact - hence inability to find it.
I thought they weren't vulnerable to that sort of thing happening?

Tartere, I think you will find that only about 15% of all missing (crashed) aircraft are actually found using an ELB. There is though a better way of tracking and finding aircraft these days.. Spidertracks and the likes now produce GPS / Satellite tracking and this has proved to be a much more useful tool in finding 'lost' aircraft. For the cost involved all aircraft should have one of these installed.

[krypton_john]

Following the Michael Erceg crash in NZ many now do.

[Motion Lotion]

From memory, the amount of $$ spent on the Erceg search would have been enough to install a Spider in every aircraft in NZ, and pay for the running costs for two years!

[Nige321]

Lots of detail here... (http://www.findlostaircraft.co.nz/zk-hnw.html)

[beamender99]

BBC News - New Zealand DNA tests on helicopter crash bodies (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-20442678)

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64310000/jpg/_64310729_f7f005be-fe13-4cfc-9b0e-818bd72cb3c5.jpg

[Newforest2]

I am confused! Initial reports in 2004 said the helicopter was green, the post by Nige shows a photo of a black helicopter and the photo of the wreckage looks like a blue and white machine?

[tartare]

For international readers - very good TV3 report here (http://www.3news.co.nz/The-mystery-of-the-missing-helicopter/tabid/367/articleID/277752/Default.aspx?ref=video_2012-11-22) from one of my former colleagues, Tsehai Tiffin.
It shows video of the terrain and how hard the wreckage is to spot.
Motion Lotion - tks for pointer to Spidertracks (http://www.spidertracks.com/) - very interesting.

[parabellum]

Newforest2 - Possibly, after nine years, mainly under snow and then bleached by some summer sun with a high UV factor the colour has changed.

[cockney steve]

As eni fule kno,,,yellow+blue =green.....It's a bit more complex than that, but anybody who has looked at vehicles, buildings,aircraft and boats must have noticed that all paint fades and certain colours are more prone to fade than others.....yellow, fades quite rapidly and needs a lot of solid white to block it's translucency...Red, bleeds through almost anything usually needs a coat of black to "block" it- fades to chalky orange....blue ..will often cast a purplish haze on the surface as it fades.....green....see start :8 these are generalisations and modern paints are more colourfast but as Parabellum said, Clean air at Altitude= strong UV add strong winds, sandblasting effect of snow/ice crystals plus several years of heat/cool cycling whilst exposed to the other factors and you're asking a hell of a lot from a fresh repaint, let alone one that had probably done a good bit before it was crashed.

[Newforest2]

Reported now in the Daily Mail.

British backpacker Hannah Timings' body recovered after helicopter crash in New Zealand eight years ago - AOL Travel UK (http://travel.aol.co.uk/2012/11/23/hannah-timings-british-backpacker-body-found-killed-eight-years-ago-helicopter-crash-new-zealand/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cuk%7Cdl10%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D138432)

[Thone1]

tartare,

Thanks for posting this link, I wasn´t aware of that accident until now.
Good report I think.

Tom

[Newforest2]

CAA will not investigate 2004 crash.

Fiordland Helicopter Find: CAA Will Not Investigate... | Stuff.co.nz (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8005765/CAA-will-not-investigate-helicopter-crash)