pilot and a passenger were found dead<\/a>.<\/p>\nK\u0101piti-Mana Area Commander Inspector Ren\u00e9e Perkins said in an update on Thursday that a significant recovery operation took place to recover both victims from the crash site.<\/p>\n
“Police are working to formally confirm the identity of those who were recovered, but are unable to do so at this stage of the investigation,” Inspector Perkins said.<\/p>\n
“Our thoughts remain with their families and friends at this time.”<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JU372U_DJI_20260128164130_0002_D_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe area where a helicopter crashed on Wednesday.
\nPhoto: RNZ\/Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n
A witness told RNZ he understood the helicopter was involved in goat culling in the area.<\/p>\n
The man, who was first to reach the crash, said he was checking a body for vital signs as the Westpac rescue chopper arrived.<\/p>\n
He said he could not find any sign of life before he made the call to get clear of the aircraft.<\/p>\n
The man said the Westpac crew soon spotted another body in thick scrub, on steep terrain some distance from the wreckage.<\/p>\n
Cordons remain in place around the Battle Hill campground while police examine the scene.<\/p>\n
Civil Aviation Authority investigators have completed their preliminary scene examination.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police at the helicopter crash in Paek\u0101k\u0101riki Hill on Wednesday. Photo: RNZ\/Samuel Rillstone Police have recovered the bodies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-256509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JU37VQ_Image_41_jfif.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n