It was like something out of a Boy's Own Adventures magazine. On Wednesday night, Morgan Saxton's body was retrieved from Lake Wanaka in a 94m-deep underwater operation hailed as an ingenious example of "number-8 wire" technology.
Inventive former saturation diver and ex-SAS soldier Brent Pihama, who has been based in Wanaka for 23 years and now drives jet-boats for a living, built a retrieval rig for a remotely operated vehicle using his son's ski pole, a climbing rope, a snap hook and sticky tape.
It was a triumph over adversity in a long and tiring search in an extremely challenging environment, that involved up to 80 volunteers, police, navy and specialist divers.
It was also a non-bureaucratic method of self-help that appealed to many, and quite likely Mr Saxton himself would have approved.
LandSar chairman John Taylor said yesterday he was thrilled Mr Pihama's "outside the square" invention worked, for the family, the searchers and all concerned.
Yesterday, Royal New Zealand Navy divers and two Transport Accident Investigation Commission (Taic) investigators were still working on identifying and salvaging helicopter parts.
They are expected to remain in Wanaka for at least some of this weekend.
Police divers left Wanaka on Thursday after their mission to find Mr Saxton was accomplished.
The grieving Saxton family, Haast community and aviation fraternity are now planning Mr Saxton's funeral, although a date is not yet known as Mr Saxton's body was still being held by coroner's office for a postmortem yesterday.
What happened to the helicopter is conjecture at this point and will be subject of a long and rigorous investigation by Taic. It could take at least six months and will be provided to the family first for their feedback before being released publicly.
The Civil Aviation Authority has withdrawn its investigators in the meantime, because the Taic investigation takes precedence.
Already dozens of rumours are swirling around Wanaka as people try to make sense of what appears to be an inconceivable accident involving a man aviation colleagues acknowledge as a highly-regarded Robinson 22 pilot.
The rumours? Well, some are upsetting or laughable; some are educated guesses, based on aviation or mechanical knowledge.
There are questions such as: Why did the helicopter go into the lake? Couldn't the pilot have made an emergency landing? Did the doors come off? Is there a missing rotor blade?Taic inspector Peter Williams said yesterday speculation and concern was understandable but people were jumping a long way ahead.
Everything was still open. Accidents always gave people plenty to think about and speculation could be both harmful and helpful, he said.
Regarding the doors and rotor blade, the investigators did not know where they were. They were still cataloguing the fuselage hauled from the lake on Wednesday night.
"We don't know what the actual situation was. [The doors] aren't with it but at the same time there are lots of different things to speculate about. We are not particularly worried that they are not here. They are a relatively flimsy item anyway. On its own, that doesn't mean much. We need other evidence."
The engine and transmission were of particular interest, because they might reveal evidence of why the machine lost power. But they had not been recovered late yesterday afternoon despite ongoing attempts by divers.
It was proving a tricky operation because of the place the engine was lying on the lake bed, and although it was important, Taic could come back to it later if need be, Mr Williams said.
Experienced Robinson 22 pilot Simon Spencer-Bower understood people wanted to know. One of his pilot graduates, Canadian Keith McKenzie and a passenger died in a Robinson 22 accident on Homestead Peak in March 2006.
"We all understand the nature of speculation, but if you have the maturity, shut up and wait for something definitive".
However, he also understood the frustration of waiting. The Civil Aviation Authority had not completed its report into the Homestead Peak accident because sometimes the cause was not easy to determine.
"They can deduce what happened but they can't always deduce why . . . They can't come to a definite conclusion why it happened. There are a number of possibilities."
Although the Civil Aviation Authority has pulled back in the meantime, investigator Colin Grounsell told the Otago Daily Times earlier this week "our particular interest is in the mechanical area but until you have more information you can't discount anything".
Constable Emma Fleming, of Wanaka, said yesterday it was an example of what happened when one person said "I wonder if he made a radio mayday call and two people later it becomes he made a radio mayday call".
Wanaka police and the Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC) in Wellington yesterday confirmed they have no record a radio mayday call was made. Nor was the helicopter's emergency beacon activated.
So none of the agencies have a clear picture yet as to what happened about 6pm last Saturday.
Mr Saxton's friend, farmer Jonathan Wallis, is believed to have been the last person to have seen Mr Saxton alive that evening, as he flew his black Robinson 22 Alpha (call sign HXR) over the Minaret Station barge. The accident happened several kilometres and a short time later, further down the lake towards Mou Waho Island. Mr Wallis did not see it.
Mr Saxton's father, Dave, was flying in another helicopter on the same route.
When his son did not turn up at Wanaka, he made inquiries, the RCC was contacted and searches - private and official - commenced.
The Wallis family were involved from the initial stages, with brothers Jonathan, Toby, Nick and Matt among those working hard all week to try to find their friend and comfort the Saxton family.
The Wallis brothers have asked the media to respect the family's privacy.
The Saxton family has issued a statement thanking their friends, police, navy, search and rescue volunteers and the community for help and support.
In the coming days, weeks and months, the Taic investigators will catalogue and examine the material evidence they have collected and impounded.
"You will appreciate [the fuselage] is wrecked. We will catalogue what we see from front to rear . . . the instruments and things as presented to us, where it is broken, what sort of break it is, what it looks like. If the engine needs to be examined we can send it to specialists," Mr Williams said.
Taic will also obtain and review Mr Saxton's flight logs and engineering and service records for HXR, a machine Mr Saxton obtained in December 2006.
They have not looked at them yet, do not know when the machine was last serviced and do not know Mr Saxton's total flight hours.
They will also consider why Mr Saxton might not have been able to autorotate - or glide without power - to safety.
Taic chief investigator Tim Burfoot said during an autorotate, the pilot uses the momentum of the rotor blades, which provide the lift, to control the aircraft down to a landing spot. The landing might not always be gentle but it could usually be completed safely.
Mr Spencer-Bower, an instructor who has clocked up 12,000 hours (the world record) in a Robinson 22, said pilots practised this technique every day.
Mr Spencer-Bower also described the Robinson 22 as the safest of helicopters. His company, Wanaka Helicopters, owned four.
The Robinson 22 was "the most prolific helicopter in the world" with some 4500-5000 produced.
"If everyone drove Toyota Corollas then all the accidents would be in Toyota Corollas, wouldn't they?" he said.
All Wanaka Helicopter students learn to fly in a Robinson 22 and Mr Spencer-Bower estimated about 95% of all helicopter training in New Zealand was conducted in them.
The Robinson 22 had gone through intensive development and all modifications had been exhaustively tested and approved, he said.
Five models were now available: the standard, the HP, the Alpha, the Beta and also the Beta II, but to layman's eyes they would seem no different.
Accidents could be caused by things as simple as a bee-sting or bird strike, Mr Spencer-Bower said.
It was highly unlikely a helicopter would "just break up" in flight.
"Aircraft just don't do that," he said.
