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The ATSB has said it will continue its investigation into the crash of a Robinson R44 that collided with a hotel roof in Cairns on Monday.
In a statement, the transport safety watchdog said its investigators were expected to complete their evidence collection phase on Wednesday as part of their probe into the crash of Nautilus Aviation helicopter VH-ERH, which killed its pilot on what the company has labelled an “unauthorised” flight.
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“To date, they have examined the accident site and the helicopter wreckage; retrieved helicopter instrumentation for the download of recorded data at the ATSB’s Canberra facilities; interviewed the operator and witnesses; and collected CCTV footage and air traffic control surveillance information,” the ATSB said.
The ATSB has stressed that it undertakes “no blame” transport safety investigations to identify lessons and concerns, and “not for the purposes of taking administrative, regulatory or criminal action”.
“As the flight was undertaken by a pilot who the operator has stated was not authorised to fly the helicopter, the ATSB may elect to discontinue the investigation should we determine there are unlikely to be broader safety lessons to be shared,” the statement read.
“Based on the evidence gathered to date, the ATSB has assessed that other safety lessons may emerge from this accident.
“As such, the ATSB currently plans to continue the investigation through to the publication of a preliminary report in 6-8 weeks’ time, at which point we will provide a further update on the course of the investigation. The preliminary report will detail the accident flight’s sequence of events and evidence gathered by the ATSB.”
Speaking to ABC Radio National, ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said the motivations of the pilot – identified as an employee of Nautilus Aviation who the company says was not authorised to fly the helicopter – are unlikely to be terror-related.
“The police went to great lengths to reassure the public here that they believe it is a one-off incident and there’s nothing else behind this, because things like this are unsettling, and we only have to look into the past history around planes into buildings, and where that can potentially lead us,” he said.
“This is something very different. It doesn’t at this stage look to be anything related to that in terms of anything broader than an individual.
“[When] we start to piece together all that information and rely on some of the work that we’re doing with police over the coming days, we’ll be in a better position to really understand what was the motivation behind this flight, if we can determine that, and if there’s any recommendations to lessen the likelihood of something like this happening again.”
