Snowy Mountains: man and woman dead following horror helicopter crash

Police believe victims of a horror helicopter crash were a 64-year-old woman and a 75-year-old man from Sydney’s northern suburbs.

Police are trying to locate the relatives of a man and woman who died in a horror helicopter crash in a remote area of the Snowy Mountains on Monday night.

The commander of the Monaro Police District and the chief Commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau fronted the media on Tuesday afternoon following the crash, which comes less than a month after five people were injured in a separate helicopter crash near the Guthega Dam in Kosciuszko National Park on March 11.

Monaro Police District commander Superintendent John Klepczarek said police received a report about this week’s crash at 10pm on Monday.

He said officers from Tumut located the scene of the crash just before midnight at Kiandra Flats, 200m east of the Snowy Mountains Highway.

“At this stage we believe the occupants of the helicopter (were) a 64-year-old woman and a 75-year-old man,” Superintendent John Klepczarek said.

“We believe they are from the northern suburbs of Sydney.”

Superintendent John Klepczarek fronts the media following a horror helicopter crash in the Snowy Mountains. Picture: Julia Kanapathippillai

Supt Klepczarek said police understood there were reports of the same helicopter making a safe landing in the area on Sunday afternoon and that police were piecing together the timeline between the landing and the crash.

He said “very little” is known about the helicopter or the occupants and said police were “treating this investigation virtually from scratch”.

“We have no idea about the chopper, who owns it, where it’s from, if it’s private, if it’s commercial,” Supt Klepczarek said.

“At this stage our main concentration is to identify the occupants and identify their next of kin.

“These are two people who have suffered and we need to get to their family so they know.”

He said police were “in the process as we speak” of locating and contacting family.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said monday’s crash was the ninth aviation crash the agency was investigating in 4 months. Picture: Julia Kanapathippillai

Mr Klepczarek said police were still at the scene of the crash and he expected officers to remain there for at least the rest of the day.

“It’s in the middle of nowhere … (officers) did extremely well to come across (the crash) at the time that they did,” Supt Klepczarek said.

“The main difficulty last night was that it was pitch black … last night after discovery we secured the location and at first light we got as many resources as we could.”

Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said Monday’s crash was the ninth aviation incident the agency was investigating in the past four months.

“There was another (crash) we’re investigating that occurred just over a month ago in much the same location,” Mr Mitchell said.

“But equally we’ve just returned from Mt Disappointment where we tragically are investigating five fatalities.

“It’s a busy time for us, we’ve had accidents across six separate states in Australia.”

Mr Mitchell said he expects the bureau to have a preliminary report into the crash prepared within six to eight weeks.

He said he expected the bureau to take over the site from police by the end of Tuesday and said bureau investigators could remain on site for “quite a number of days”.