A student pilot who survived a helicopter crash that killed his instructor remains in hospital as investigators arrive at the crash site in Sydney’s south-west.<\/p>\n
The Robinson R22 helicopter came down in a car park on Birch Street \u2014 just outside the secured perimeter of the Bankstown Airport airfield \u2014 on Friday about 1:30pm.<\/p>\n
It has been confirmed the aircraft belonged to Bankstown Helicopters, a large, well-known operation based at the airport.<\/p>\n
Initial reports from NSW Ambulance suggested the aircraft had clipped a powerline and some trees, but the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has said that occurred in “its very final phase of flight”.<\/p>\n
The Robinson R22 helicopter belonged to Bankstown Helicopters. (Supplied: Australian Helicopter Pilot School)<\/p>\n
ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said it was too early to determine who had been operating the helicopter, which was being used for training.<\/p>\n
“It seems to be whatever has gone wrong has gone wrong quite high in altitude prior to it coming down,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
he said.<\/p>\n
“We know that circuit training is generally done at sort of 800 to below 1,000 feet.<\/p>\n
“But until we actually have some of that data to verify, I wouldn’t like to speculate at this stage what may have gone wrong.”<\/p>\n
Paramedics found the 62-year-old instructor inside the wreckage. He died at the scene.<\/p>\n
![\"ATSB](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/276650fecfc6ee746fc73e987024e5a8\")
<\/p>\n
Angus Mitchell says the instructor and student pilot were undertaking circuit training at the time of the crash. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Witnesses moved the 19-year-old student pilot out of the wreckage to a safe area nearby, where he was treated for multiple injuries before being taken to hospital in a critical condition.<\/p>\n
“He was found to have a fractured jaw, multiple abrasions and spinal injuries,” Audie Jousief from NSW Ambulance said on Friday.<\/p>\n
He praised the “bravery” of the people who rendered assistance, saying “they probably helped save his life”.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the teenager remained at Liverpool Hospital in a serious condition.<\/p>\n
Crash investigation underway<\/p>\n
ATSB investigators from Canberra specialising in operations, engineering and maintenance arrived at the site \u2014 which had been closed off by NSW Police overnight \u2014 on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
Mr Mitchell said the team had already been in contact with the aircraft’s owners.<\/p>\n
Investigators will examine the wreckage, map the crash site and recover helicopter parts as well as scrutinising the aircraft’s history and maintenance record.<\/p>\n
![\"crashed](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/73109c9a5da070cf71f4eba899d457d3\")
<\/p>\n
The aircraft’s history and maintenance record are among the elements that will form part of the investigation. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
They will also look into the experience of both of the aircraft’s occupants, as well as how long the helicopter had been in the air and the type of circuit training it was being used for.<\/p>\n
Flight-tracking data, weather details and radio transmissions, including if a mayday call was issued, will also form part of the investigation.<\/p>\n
When asked if there had been previous issues with the Robinson aircraft, Mr Mitchell reiterated it was too early to tell if the aircraft “had played a part” in the crash.<\/p>\n
“Robinsons are an incredibly popular brand of helicopters in Australia and they’re used across the whole range of the industry,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We have worked closely with all aircraft manufactures \u2014 Robinsons certainly being one around where we have identified issues in the past \u2014 and we’ve certainly seen some very good take-up of some of the recommendations that the ATSB’s made.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
![\"ATSB](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1c30a1398473eba45d2caf2abe9ce8f2\")
<\/p>\n
The experience of both of the aircraft’s occupants will be examined. (ABC News: Tony Ibrahim\u00a0)<\/p>\n
A preliminary report detailing the flight’s sequence is expected within eight weeks while the full investigation will take longer.<\/p>\n
“We know that there are a lot of people that will be mourning today over the tragic loss of life yesterday,” Mr Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
“Our thoughts [go] out to the student pilot who’s currently receiving treatment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A student pilot who survived a helicopter crash that killed his instructor remains in hospital as investigators arrive…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":276450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,89403,142945,103542,63402,50,22234,142946],"class_list":{"0":"post-276449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australian-transport-safety-bureau","10":"tag-birch-street-bankstown","11":"tag-chopper-crash","12":"tag-helicopter-crash","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-nsw-ambulance","15":"tag-robinson-r22-helicopter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115314410858993654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}