Pilot Bill Black hovers a Squirrel helicopter preparing to lift a hughes 500D after a successful crash landing. This was caused by tail rotor malfunction whilst in the process of capturing deer that had been running across the riverbed between the trees. The pilot Gordon Kane and rifle crewman Nelson Thompson, after the crash secured the aircraft to the trees by a rope and journeyed many hours through the forest to Big River, then to Lake Hakapua, then to the southern coast of Fiordland where a flare signal from Gordon was spotted by a passing aeroplane who's pilot alerted the authorities and a search and rescue procedure was carried out by Bill Black and New Zealand Police in the early hours of the morning.

Photo: Nelson Thompson.