(l-r) Paul Nicholson, Sonia Marra, Harriet Nicholson and Helen Tamaki Pilot error has been blamed for a New York helicopter crash which killed a New Zealand woman, her partner and a another family member. The US National Transportation Safety Board says determined the Bell 206B helicopter was overloaded for the October 4, 2011, sightseeing flight and pilot Paul Dudley, a family friend of those who died, failed to pull the helicopter out of an uncontrolled spin. "Witnesses described the helicopter as descending in an uncontrolled spin before it contacted the water, where it then rolled inverted and sank,'' the report states. "The investigation determined that the helicopter was loaded to an overweight condition, likely because the pilot did not anticipate having two additional passengers onboard the helicopter and because he did not perform weight-and-balance calculations,''it says. "The front-seat passenger stated in a post-accident interview that the pilot did not ask for anyone's weight or perform any calculations before takeoff.'' The flight was part of 40th birthday celebrations in New York for Sonia Marra, a restaurant owner from the Sydney suburb of Newtown. Her New Zealand-born partner Helen Tamaki and mother Harriet Nicholson also died as a result of the crash. Marra's stepfather Paul Nicholson and the pilot survived.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 2nd March 2013 - 2:08pm