Accidents
On 25 April 2010, at about 5.45am, a UH-1 Iroquois crashed near Paekakariki Hill Rd, about 40 km north east of Wellington. The Iroquois was en route to Anzac Day commemorations from RNZAF Base Ohakea when the helicopter crashed into a steep hill in the morning darkness, killing 3 men. A 4th crew member survived the crash with serious injuries. The cause of the crash was released to the public on the 16th December 2011. The Defence Force's court of inquiry into the accident found sub-standard protocols and a culture of "rule breaking" among 3 Squadron was partly to blame. The report found the crew lost situational awareness when they inadvertently flew into heavy cloud in the early-morning darkness, and did not recover in time to take evasive action. The court of inquiry made 20 recommendations - half of those directly addressed what it deemed to be the six causes of the crash.
Read more about this topic: No. 3 Squadron RNZAF
Famous quotes containing the word accidents:
“We are the men of intrinsic value, who can strike our fortunes out of ourselves, whose worth is independent of accidents in life, or revolutions in government: we have heads to get money, and hearts to spend it.”
—George Farquhar (1678–1707)
“The day-laborer is reckoned as standing at the foot of the social scale, yet he is saturated with the laws of the world. His measures are the hours; morning and night, solstice and equinox, geometry, astronomy, and all the lovely accidents of nature play through his mind.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)