Heli crash Viaduct

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/pilot-doing-fine-after-viaduct-helicopter-crash-4560847

for those who haven't heard already

Stuff has the headline: Christmas Miracle

jesus wept

nice

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=122813
different angle

that crash looks so weird. Looks fake, the helicopter looks like a toy.

Whose bright idea was it to fly a helicopter that close to all those cables?!?!

I'm assuming it just clipped the cable and that's what caused it to just jolt apart like that?

Discussion elsewhere suggests he was lowering to disconnect the lift cable, and the lift cable is what got sucked into the rotors.

From one of the angles you can see he's looking all around, aware of what's around him. Presumably it was his idea.

Until CAA is done and dusted we wont really know though.

Edit: also remember that the camera has a foreshortening effect, so while it looks like he was hemmed in by cables on all sides, he would have had MUCH more clearance than the footage indicates.

Edit2: still not enough clearance, obviously :>