No signal was received when the Robinson R22 helicopter with two Southland men on board went down in Bluff Harbour, although it is compulsory for all New Zealand-registered aircraft to have on board a properly installed, registered, automatic 406MHz emergency locator transmitter that goes off on impact.
The bodies of Bluff helicopter pilot and instructor Jason Wright (29) and trainee pilot Avondale farmer Allan Munro (67) were located with Mr Munro's submerged, intact Robinson R22 helicopter about 2km southeast of Colyers Island inside Bluff Harbour.
It is understood Mr Wright, chief executive of Stewart Island Helicopters, was training Mr Munro when the aircraft went missing.
A helicopter spotted the submerged Robinson as the tide was going out just after noon yesterday, after a 22-hour search involving more than 40 people, including the crews of three helicopters one of them the Otago Regional Rescue Helicopter - two Coastguard vessels and a Coastguard jet ski, local police personnel and a LandSAR team.
The bodies were recovered yesterday and the case has been referred to the coroner.
Glennis Munro said her husband had flown aeroplanes for 25 years and was a week away from sitting his helicopter pilot licence test, it was reported yesterday.
"He has flown heaps and heaps of hours [in planes] and he wanted to have a helicopter before he died, so he got a helicopter," she said.
Bluff Community Board member Jan Mitchell said Mr Wright was a "lovely" man, who was always available to lend a hand when called on, and the community was rallying around his family.
CAA spokesman Bill Summer said there were various reasons beacons did not automatically go off on impact. If an aircraft transmitter was submerged, its signal was unlikely to be received.
CAA investigators would look at why the beacon had not gone off, as they did in any accident where a beacon should have gone off but had not.
Whether either man would have survived if a transmitter had been set off was unknown.
In its report, which was likely to take about 12 months, the CAA would also give its opinion on whether the crash was survivable, but that decision was ultimately a coroner's.
As well as the crash investigation, the CAA would analyse the circumstances of the crash to pick out any links with other incidents or underlying trends.
Issues with ELTs had been identified and the CAA was working with the respective authorities to address them.
They included a jamming fault with the automatic beacon activation switches in the Artex ELTs used in more than 1300 New Zealand aircraft.
The beacons could still be activated manually, but the CAA had directed all aircraft owners to get their beacons tested.
Mr Summer said the CAA was working with manufacturers and the authorities to reduce the probability ELTs would fail in a crash.
Two CAA investigators were due to arrive in Invercargill last night and would begin their investigation today.
HELICOPTER SAFETY
Between 2000 and 2009, there were 124 accidents involving non-jet engine helicopters reported to the CAA, which translated to 0.27 accidents for every 1000 hours flown.
There were slightly fewer accidents among turbine-engine helicopters with 68 reported accidents in 10 years - 0.1 accidents per 1000 flying hours.
Recent crashes. -
• October 14: Robinson R22 crashes into Bluff Harbour. Two people die.
• October 4: Robinson R44 crashes at Preservation Inlet, Fiordland. Two occupants not injured.
• October 4: Robinson R22 crashes on Banks Peninsula. Man with moderate injuries rescued.
• September 28: MD Helicopter loses power, lands in ditch, rolls and catches fire north of Mt Ajax in the Lewis Pass. Sole occupant injured.
• September 23: Aerospatiale helicopter left unattended with the engine running at Nokomai, blew over backwards. No-one was on board.
• September 8: Hughes 500 helicopter loses power and ditches in Milford Sound. Arrowtown man Mark Cotton rescued.
