Hughes 369 ZK-HNW

This site is dedicated to all those families of the people that have tragically disappeared on flights in and around New Zealand. I only hope that from all the effort in building this site and from all the effort of those taking part in this venture, that it will bear fruit in bringing ‘closure’ to their memories!
Gavin Grimmer

Email: gavin@findlostaircraft.co.nz

This helicopter was owned by Featherstone Contracting Ltd., Hamilton.
It was on a flight from the Howden Hut on the Routeburn Track, to Milford
Sound - a distance of only about 13 nautical miles!
Even after an extensive search of in excess of 200 flying hours and 2,500 man hours, no trace was ever found of it.... until 12th November 2012!
The following pages systematically go through the “trials and tribulations” that I went through in the attempt to find this aircraft.
If you prefer to just skip to the section explaining the conclusions of what I believe
happened using the benefit of hindsight, please click on this link:
ZK-HNW FOUND!

Hughes 369HS ZK-HNW

3 January 2004

Missing: Campbell Montgomerie -age 27

Hannah Rose Timings - age 28

To date (30th October 2009), along with assistance from the Police, I have done quite a lot of research into the disappearance of this helicopter and have very strong evidence that suggests that it was searched for in the wrong place.

Search and Rescue were under a lot of pressure, at the time of the disappearance, to save lives, and had I been involved with the search at the time, then I probably would have made the same mistakes.

Now, with the “luxury” of no pressure and time, I have been able to examine the evidence in great detail and can localize the the crash site down to a much smaller area a long way away from where they thought he meant.

To date we have had a helicopter check out a probable crash site (found on Google Earth) but unfortunately there has been a landslide that has now buried anything that may have been there.

I’ve heard rumours of another possible search for this helicopter and if the organizers of this wish to contact me, then I’m more than happy to help out in any way.

The final object of all this research is to put an end to this mystery and give the families of Campbell and Hannah some finality, and I don’t care whether it is me that finds them or someone else - just so long as they are found. - This would make all my efforts worthwhile!

On the 23rd December 2009 I over-flew and filmed an area west of Milford with a HD video camera (mounted as per above) and also took photos out the window with my Olympus SLR camera and on return home I examined all the footage very thoroughly.

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