mid-air heli vs aeroplane NZPP
 

A plane and helicopter have collided in the mid air above Paraparaumu, north of Wellington this morning.

A police spokesman said the collision happened above the Placemakers store at about 11.15am.

The pilot of the plane came down in a nearby street, alive but seriously injured.

He said police had yet to determine how many people were on the plane but the helicopter had two on board, both are confirmed dead..

Firefighters, ambulance staff and police were at the scene.
===========

Apparently aero is a twin-engine, POB unknown.

NZ Herald reporting was a glider. Anyone know for sure?

Merged: Heli - Plane Mid Air, Kapiti.
 

Two dead in mid-air smash

LATEST: A light plane and a helicopter have crashed after colliding in mid-air above Paraparaumu, north of Wellington this morning.



It is understood two people from the helicopter were killed.
The collision appeared to occur above the Placemakers store about 11.15am. It is understood the crippled helicopter crashed into Placemakers and the light aircraft came down over Dennis Taylor Court, narrowly missing a house.
It is believed no customers or staff at the hardware store were injured.
It has been reported that the plane's pilot, the sole occupant, was alive when he was pulled from the wreckage. One eye witness told NZPA the pilot was taken to hospital by ambulance.
Eyewitness Anne Russell said she was watching the aircraft and thought they were getting too close to each other.
"Then the left wing of the plane heading west toward the airport clipped the tail of the helicopter that was heading south - broke the wing off the plane which spun to the ground. The chopper seemed to carry on in a straight line for a brief moment, then plummeted straight down to the ground at high speed.
"The scream of the chopper falling will haunt me for a while."
Emergency services from Wellington to Otaki are responding en masse to the crash, which is understood to have also caused serious injuries.
Inspector Steve Darroch from Wellington Police said police were dealing with two separate crash scenes.
Police were yet to determine how many people were on the plane and helicopter.
Firefighters, ambulance staff and police were at the scene.
NZPA

Helicopter is operated by Helipro

TV3 is showing a picture of a cowling with CESSNA on it - brown and white but doesn't actually state that it is from the aircraft.

About to post that myself. Sad news indeed.
STUFF is showing a similar pic and is cowling is apparently from the aircraft.
At least the pilot of the aeroplane survived the impact, lets hope he recovers.

Just like deja-vu from the Aussie mid-air last week.
Always a busy piece of airspace around Paraparam, especially in the weekends when the weather is nice.
Tragic for all concerned.
DC

Helicopter doing flight test, hit by 152 doing overhead rejoin.

Isn't it time this outdated and unsafe joining proceedure was scrapped?

Unfortantely the solo pilot has died... :(

Very sorry to hear that, given the circumstances and the state of the aircraft in the aftermath I was quite amazed that he survived the initial accident at all.

Damn it, I get a shiver everytime I hear such sad events. Risk, it's all about risk.
Like all accidents I hope that we can gain something from their demise!

To the families/friends involved, I say sorry


F

Having two opposing (Heli/Glider and Aeroplane, Grass and Seal) at PP was always something you needed to watch out for. Hopefully this will be the catalyst for a change from this risky practice. Perhaps maybe a controller, or at the very least a FIS back into the tower as well? It would have to come if Air NZ want to run a dash to AA, why not get it in there now?

Condolences
 

Dave you will be missed, thoughts with your family.

NZScion,
"It would have to come if Air NZ want to run a dash to AA, why not get it in there now?"

Would it?? it is a privately owned lump of land now, who can tell them that they have to pay the wages of controllers or flight service staff, or train and certify said staff. They may have jurisdiction once airborne, but on privately owned land where would they stand??

ANZ (or it's subsidiaries) fly into much busier places than PP without any ATS, e.g. Taupo, so why would PP get a tower or FS?
It all comes down to cost.
Instead, CAA will do their usual thing and just pass a few more laws.

But, it could be the end of PP as a GA airport due to encroachment of housing into the airport perimeter area. It is no secret that the present owner only bought the airport to redevelop it as an industrial park. So far he has been thwarted due to the council insisting that it remain an airport, but this could just tip the balance.

Similar things are happening at Taieri and Bridge Pa and many other places around the world.

First of all, condolences to all concerned, a very sad day!

It's interesting to note the calls for ATC in PP after there is an accident. As previously mentioned Taupo is much busier than PP and with a more diverse mix of traffic, and yet most of the calls to get ATC or some air traffic service into Taupo pretty much fall on deaf ears. I would have thought this would be a wake up call to those operators in Taupo who feel that the "locals" can look after themselves. It appears that these were "locals" in PP.

Big sky theory doesn't work too well when it's full of aircraft all doing different things!

Awful
 

Poor guys... very sad.
I got my PPL at Associated, across the field from KAC; know the area well.
I always remember a poster Russell had on the wall, showing a bi-plane wrapped around a tree.
The caption said `Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. It is just very unforgiving of mistakes.'
I always used to bear that in mind when flying up the coast to Otaki to practice low flying... and struggling to spot on-coming traffic that you could hear on the radio.
Uncontrolled aerodromes are an economic reality in New Zealand.
I just wonder how long it will be before truly affordable TCAS is developed for aircraft the size of C152's or R22's.

A good idea, however, in the circuit wouldn`t this be giving alarms all the time, leading to a desensitization to the warning, and deafness for the FI? Even with my very limited flight time I`ve been number four to land when abeam the numbers several times..

C-152 rego
 

The 152 was ZK-ETY. Condolence's to the families of both aircraft.

Quote "I got my PPL at Associated, across the field from KAC; know the area well.
I always remember a poster Russell had on the wall, showing a bi-plane wrapped around a tree.
The caption said `Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. It is just very unforgiving of mistakes.'
I always used to bear that in mind when flying up the coast to Otaki to practice low flying... and struggling to spot on-coming traffic that you could hear on the radio." Quote

Tatare,
Me too...and I remember that poster. I think it may have even been Harry's as I learned from the "old" Associated offices, and it was on the wall there too (going back waaay too many years now)
Paraparam was always reasonably busy (but it's not Ardmore) with a mixture of fixed/rotary wing, gliders/tugs and even RPT and CAL-Flight ops (yes I'm that old!). When I learned to fly there was a Flight Service in the tower, which was a help, but I don't think it was essential.
This will create a similar debate to the Air National stabbing/hijack. What price safety? A midair COULD have happened with FSS in the tower, but it would have been less likely. How much are 3 lives worth? Politicians and beaurocrats will rationalise it by talking about the thousands of flights that take place without problems, but that is zero consolation to those who lost loved ones.
Is it just me or are the number of fatalities in GA in NZ a lot higher than they used to be? What responsibility do CAA have in all this?

Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.

— Captain A. G. Lamplugh, British Aviation Insurance Group, London. Circa early 1930's. This famous phrase has been reproduced on posters and plaques many times, with the attribution of 'anonymous'. I was told at a book signing that André Priester (one of the first Pan Am employee's) may have said it, and decided to check this with R. E. G. Davis who is curator of air transport history at the Smithsonian and author of a book on Pan Am. Ron called me back and told me the phrase pre-dates Priester, but that his research shows the originator of the phrase was Captain Lamplugh, who was quite well known in British aviation circles after W.W.I.

:8

Condolence's to people and families involved. Never nice to hear of an accident involving organisations and people involved that you knew.

Personally dont believe that Paraparaumu needs an ATC, i think with more interaction between operaters in setting up systems to reduce conjestion at busy times. For example having designated training areas and levels that all operaters are aware of.