1993 Auckland mid-air collision
Airwork (NZ), contracted to the New Zealand Police Aérospatiale AS 355 F1 and Airwork (NZ), contracted to the New Zealand Police Piper PA 28-181 · Mid-air collision
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 1
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Government
Aircraft 1 · Aérospatiale AS 355 F1
- Aircraft type
- Aérospatiale AS-355
- Category
- Helicopter · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- ZK-HIT
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Mechanics Bay HeliportTo not recorded
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA 28-181
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- ZK-ENX
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Ardmore AerodromeTo not recorded
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1993 Auckland mid-air collision was an aircraft accident in New Zealand. It occurred on 26 November 1993, when two aircraft operated by Airwork, under contract to the New Zealand Police, collided and crashed in central Auckland. The mid-air collision of the Aérospatiale TwinStar helicopter and Piper Archer aeroplane resulted in the deaths of all four occupants – a civilian Airwork pilot on each aircraft and two New Zealand Police officers on the helicopter. The accident occurred in daylight with excellent visibility, in uncontrolled airspace (class G), with both aircraft flying under visual flight rules. Both the helicopter and aeroplane were operated by Airwork (NZ), and working under contract to the New Zealand Police at the time of the accident.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission investigation found the accident occurred because neither pilot saw the other aircraft.
Collision
The collision occurred at 5:34:48 pm, near the intersection of Queen Street and Karangahape Road, at an altitude of about 1,400 feet. The left wing of the Archer separated, and the aircraft rolled, dived steeply, and crashed into the elevated carriageway on the Central Motorway Junction between the Northern and Southern Motorways. The wing landed on a church roof. The TwinStar lost the main rotor and transmission, and rear tail boom, vertical stabiliser, and rear rotor. It fell onto the Grafton Road on-ramp to the Northwestern Motorway, under Symonds Street Bridge, and a severe fire broke out, fuelled by 700 litres of kerosene. The main rotor and tail section fell into a cemetery by Karangahape Road.
Helicopter debris caused moderate facial burns to the driver of a car, who was taken to Auckland City Hospital. The accident created substantial traffic congestion, which hampered emergency services responding to the scene. A witness at Mount Eden, 1.3 NM south of the site, caught the accident on video (after the collision).
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission was notified of the accident at 6:20 pm, and appointed J J Goddard Investigator in Charge. He began a field investigation later that evening. The wreckage was moved to a storage site prior to inspection, as it was causing a serious obstruction to major public highways. The wreckage inspection found the outboard 50 cm of the left wing had been cut off the Archer, and found matching damage on one rotor blade of the helicopter, including paint similar to the airplane primer.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration conducted a cockpit field of view survey for the Commission. The relative angular position was plotted on the diagram from each aircraft, for 28 seconds prior to the collision. It showed the helicopter would have been visible to the Archer pilot, appearing for about ten seconds in the lower centre windscreen, before being obscured by the engine nose around 18 seconds before the accident. The diagram also showed the low position of the sun may have affected the pilot's ability to see the helicopter. For the TwinStar pilot, the aeroplane would have been visible only for a few seconds in the top left corner of the windscreen. The two observers in the helicopter, sitting in the left front and rear, had no obstruction preventing them seeing the approaching Archer.
The Commission found the Airwork (NZ) Operations Manual specifically addressed collision avoidance between these two aircraft:
Discussions with other pilots of the aircraft and police crew found they were familiar with the normal operating altitudes of 1,500 feet for the Police Traffic Patrol and 1,000 feet for the Police Eagle.
The Commission found the accident occurred because neither pilot saw the other aircraft. Contributing factors were the helicopter not levelling at the agreed altitude, the helicopter did not establish mutual position by radio, and the helicopter crew did not see the traffic in time. It also cited the inherent limitations with the "see and avoid" method as a causal factor. The Commission recommended the Director of Civil Aviation promulgate a single advisory radio frequency for aircraft in the uncontrolled airspace between Auckland and Whenuapai Control Zones, which he did.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1993 Auckland mid-air collision” (revision 1336109393, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1993 Auckland mid-air collision
- Revision
- 1336109393 · 2026-02-02 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4588340
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1993 Auckland mid-air collision" (page 22702990, revision 1336109393)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as a government agency in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.