{"id":263603,"date":"2026-02-02T07:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T07:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/263603\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T07:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T07:16:16","slug":"pilot-passenger-killed-in-paekakariki-hill-helicopter-crash-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/263603\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot, passenger killed in Paek\u0101k\u0101riki Hill helicopter crash named"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JU37VQ_Image_41_jfif.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"699\" alt=\"Police at the helicopter crash in Paek\u0101k\u0101riki Hill\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\n<p>Photo: RNZ\/Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n<p>The pilot and passenger killed in a helicopter crash near Paek\u0101k\u0101riki Hill last week have been named.<\/p>\n<p>They were Cole Christopher Ritchie, 25, from Wharepapa South, and Joseph Mark Keeley, 54, from Tauhara.<\/p>\n<p>The pair were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/585315\/pilot-passenger-killed-in-paekakariki-hill-helicopter-crash-were-pest-control-contractors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pest control contractors<\/a> working on Transmission Gully.<\/p>\n<p>K\u0101piti Mana Area Commander Inspector Ren\u00e9e Perkins said emergency services, aviation authorities, local iwi and regional partners have worked closely in extremely challenging terrain.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4JU372U_DJI_20260128164130_0002_D_JPG.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"590\" alt=\"The area where a helicopter crashed on Wednesday, killing the pilot and the sole passenger.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nThe are where the helicopter crashed.<br \/>\nPhoto: RNZ\/Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n<p>The helicopter wreckage was removed on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Perkins said police, Civil Aviation Authority and Victim Support are supporting the families affected.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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":"Photo: RNZ\/Samuel Rillstone The pilot and passenger killed in a helicopter crash near Paek\u0101k\u0101riki Hill last week have&hellip;\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-263603","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\/263603","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=263603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263603\/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=263603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}