Helicopter Engineers Convicted of Manslaughter

Two New Zealand aircraft engineers have been found guilty of manslaughter for the death of a helicopter pilot who died when a tail rotor component in his Robinson R22 failed as the helicopter was about to land; a passenger aboard the helicopter survived the crash. The pilot had just uplifted the helicopter from the engineers’ company where it had undergone maintenance.

The prosecution claimed that the two engineers—one of them the maintenance company’s owner and the other a senior engineer with the company—failed to ensure that a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer had directly supervised the work and failed to ensure it was inspected twice by qualified engineers.

The jury did not accept the argument by the defence that the company’s owner could not have been expected to determine if the supervision was sufficient, nor its claim that the accident was the result of human error and not of intentional criminal action.

The two engineers are due to be sentenced in May.