Mount Disappointment helicopter crash 31/3/2022
 

Emergency services began response at 9:30 to an "aviation incident" at Mount Disappointment.
3 emergency response helicopters and the SAR jet have responded.
10 ground units are fighting a bushfire. :(
C7 reporting there are 7 people on board, make and type not in the public domain

Edit: C7 reporting it is a helicopter. Due to low cloud locating the crash site is difficult. (Flight radar tracks of the rescue aircraft confirms)
Not necessarily accurate, the emergency services map has the incident icon located 100 meters north from a "H" icon at the summitt @780 meters.
edit: abc news report two helcopters were "in a convoy" enroute from Melbourne.
Perhaps related, Flight radar shows an EC30 leaving the yarra, flying to the East of Mt Disappointment then doing utrun and backtracking it's path performing what could be an aerial search and then proceeding across to Mangalore. The difference in northbound to southbound speed displayed on FR was 50 knots.

Mjb

Webtrack shows a helicopter closely followed by a Cessna 208 with the 208 last showing near Mt. Disappointment at 7.56am.

Edit 1:30pm Beware, no other source has reported the aircraft has been found!



Mjb

Could it be VH-XWD an EC-130 owned by the Deague Group (Property Developer and Builder)? Looks like it departed Moorabbin at 07:10 local, picked up at the Melbourne CBD then tracked towards the Mt Disappointment area where the tracking ended at 07:57.

It went to Lilydale not Mt Disappointment

The actual track doesn’t reflect that though.

It was XWD.

Thanks Squawk. Fingers crossed for a miracle.

XWD, and the 2nd tail was WVV which ended up landing at Mangalore

Correction to earlier reports, there were 5 persons onboard.
Staging point is Blair's Hut, bulldozers will be used to create a track to the site.
Crews being winched in at moment.
Live abc interview from scene at 17:00 hrs, reporter states police have not stated the fate of the occupants.
Herald Sun report the destination was Yarrawonga.


Mjb

Channel 10 News is reporting that wreckage has been found.

DF.

5POB. Sadly RIP. :(

It was a charter category operation.

Police locate helicopter crash site after search near Mt Disappointment

Article in The Age

The Yarrawonga destination is a curve ball because the news reporter said that there was a bus waiting at the CBD pad to drive the returning passengers to Geelong. Passengers that never came. That being said though, that was later in the day and it may have been when it was due to return.

A bit too soon to know anything really. So let’s just keep speculating. Someone can later claim ‘that’s what I said.’

I don’t believe anyone has speculated anything just yet !

Press is just reporting five POB, no survivors. Rest in peace.

Condolences to those involved.

The track of the other aircraft, which had its adsl registering with flight radar app, is heartbreaking.

I was hoping poor cell coverage in the area was an explanation for the lack of contact.

It is astonishing how a downed helicopter can be enveloped by a forest and my thoughts are with the emergency response aircrews trying to find the needle in the haystack in the adverse weather conditions.
Mjb

I heard that the aircraft may have been located by EFB tracking. Good to know that in the right conditions (eg phone coverage) that you can be found quickly by simply having been running an iPad. Assuming that you are able to survive the downing.