The ATSB is investigating an accident involving an Aerospatiale AS332L1, registration N368EV, 38 km north-west of Hay aerodrome, New South Wales on 22 November 2024.
As reported to the ATSB the aircraft was conducting a ferry flight from Broken Hill to Albury when it collided with terrain. One crew member sustained fatal injuries and the other sustained serious injuries.
The ATSB is deploying a team of transport safety investigators with expertise in helicopter maintenance and engineering, flying operations, and data recovery and analysis to the accident site. As part of the onsite phase of the investigation, they will examine and map the site and wreckage, and recover recording devices and retrieve any components deemed necessary for further examination in the ATSB’s technical facilities in Canberra.
Other investigation activities will include interviewing any witnesses and involved parties, reviewing pilot and maintenance records, operator procedures, and weather and environmental conditions, and retrieving flight data information.
The ATSB asks anyone who may have witnessed and has footage of the accident, or who has footage of either aircraft in any phase of their flights, to contact us via the witness form on our website at their earliest convenience.
The ATSB will release a preliminary report detailing factual information established in the investigation’s evidence-gathering phase in about two months. A final report will be released at the conclusion of the investigation and will detail analysis and findings.
However, if at any time during the investigation we discover a critical safety issue, the ATSB will work closely with the relevant stakeholders so action can be taken to address that issue.