[Peetwo]

CASA shows it's true colours..  

Absolutely disgusting - Less than 24hrs after the tragic discovery of the fatal accident site and already the MSM - aided & abetted by CASA - is dragging Richard Green's past infractions with the regulator to the surface.

Helicopter crash: No survivors as wreckage found in Watagans National Park

Neil Keene, Richard Noone and Ian Walker - The Daily Telegraph


The bodies of three people have been found with the wreckage of a missing helicopter south of Cessnock, NSW.[img=0x0]http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/news/content/v1/origin:video_integrator.5wNTZxeDpAkGmGxnmjmKrfmMbBDX4X2j?t_product=video&t_template=../video/player[/img]

• Dick Smith’s sadness at loss of adventurer friends
  

Millionaire pilot Richard Green, who died with his wife Carolyn and friend John Davis when their helicopter crashed in the NSW Hunter Valley had a history of close calls and run-ins with aviation authorities.

Mr Green, whose Eurocopter EC-135 went missing somewhere between Breeza, near Tamworth, and Sydney late Saturday, lost his licence for six months in 2013 after four dangerous flying incidents in the space of 11 days in May, 2012.

Adventure Photographer and helicopter pilot, Richard Green and wife Carolyn / Picture: Supplied

In November, 2012, Mr Green struck powerlines with his helicopter, causing “significant damage”, before taking off again in contravention of civil aviation laws.

And he was counselled by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority in 2007 after his helicopter’s rotor blades struck a tree while landing and he undertook unauthorised repairs on the machine.

RECOVERY HINDERED BY TERRAIN

A LARGE contingent of police including a mobile forensic services command post have arrived to recover the bodies of Mr Green, his wife Carolyn and filmmaker friend John Davis.

A convoy of police vehicles arrived at Crumps Retreat Fire Trail in the Watagan State Forest at 11.45am to begin the grim task and to secure the crash site.

Vision of the helicopter crash site that killed millionaire photographer Richard Green, his wife Carolyn and friend John Davis. Picture: Channel 7

The debris is scattered over a large area of dense bush, which has been quarantined by a protection order issued by the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) effectively making the entire site a federal crime scene.

PolAir has returned to the area, hovering above as officers from the police rescue squad unload equipment in preparation for ATSB investigators to begin piecing together how the privately owned chopper met its grisly demise early Saturday evening.

A Police Forensics team is pictured as they arrive to the location of the helicopter crash site that killed millionaire photographer Richard Green, his wife Carolyn. Picture: Peter Lorimer

A nearby property owner said it had been drizzling with rain from about 4pm with the helicopter expected to land at the couple’s Terrey Hills home at 5:30pm.

Police say the rough terrain is hindering the retrieval process

“It is a fairly rugged location and inaccessible. We are putting rescue police in there,” Superintendent Craig Jackson told reporters in Cessnock on Tuesday.

The area in Watagans National Park, near Cessnock, where the aircraft of Richard and Carolyn Green's helicopter went down over the weekend.

“Once we have conducted a scientific examination of the site, we will then carry out the bodies,” he said.

Rescuers hope to retrieve the bodies in the next few hours.

“The site is accessible but obviously we have to take certain equipment in there to get our job done. It is proving a challenge. I am told we are not far off now,” Supt Jackson said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s Greg Madden said three investigators would attend the crash site.

“Investigators will carefully examine the helicopter wreckage (and) conduct a thorough investigation of the accident site ... particularly to see if there are any ground marks or other evidence that may assist us in determining what may have occurred.”

NEVER MADE IT HOME

The trio were last seen at the Harvest Festival mine protest in Breeza, south of Tamworth, on Saturday before taking off in the helicopter with Mr Green at the controls about 3pm.

The flight from the rural community to the Greens’ luxury Terrey Hills home in northern Sydney should have taken just two hours.

No mayday calls or emergency beacon signals were detected from their flight and they weren’t reported missing until 6am yesterday when Mr Davis’ wife contacted authorities.

The search was also delayed because Mr Green failed to file what is known as an SAR time alert — a nominated time of arrival, after which a search is automatically triggered.

Film maker John Davis died when the helicopter he was travelling on crashed in the Hunter Valley.Adventure photographer and helicopter pilot Richard Green and his wife Carolyn / Picture: Supplied

An airport or aerodrome would usually report the failure of a helicopter to arrive, but the Greens’ park their aircraft in a private hangar attached to their home.

Breeza Station owner and festival host Andrew Pursehouse said the helicopter arrived at his adjoining Ridge Station shortly before 11am on Saturday and departed shortly after keynote speakers addressed the protest against a proposed Shenhua’s coal mine in the region about 3pm.

Carolyn Green / Picture: SuppliedRichard Green and his wife Carolyn / Picture: SuppliedThe helicopter took off from Breeza headed for the northern beaches.

A fleet of aircraft yesterday undertook an extensive aerial search covering rugged bush and mountains on their suspected flight path before zeroing in on the crash site last night.

One of 10 helicopters involved found the wreckage in dense vegetation about 7pm.

A paramedic was winched down to confirm it was the missing aircraft.

Mr Green, who described his aircraft as his “pride and joy”, lost his licence for six months in 2013 after a spate of dangerous flying incidents.

ABOUT THE VICTIMS

Mr Green graduated from London’s Brunel University with a degree in applied physics and computer science.

He started an IT conference business in 1970 and in the late 80s the company employed more than 120 staff across three countries, with offices in London, New York and Singapore, according to a biography on the photographer.

In an interview with Seven’s Sunday Night in 2013, Mr Green said he started working as a physicist but didn’t like being confined to a lab.

Photograph taken of a campsite in the Outback for Richard and Carolyn Green’s book, Remote & Wild: Seeing the Unknown Australia.A weathered outback tree from Richard and Carolyn Green.Photograph taken of a campsite in the Outback. Picture: Richard GreenMr Green had become a renowned nature photographer and had published a book of photographs of remote locations.

When he sold his business in the late 1980s he moved to Australia where he met his wife Caroline, a graphic artist.

Mr Green used the proceeds of the sale of his business to buy a helicopter and the pair embarked on an adventure across the country that would span two decades.

Referring to the chopper as their ‘flying campervan’, the Greens would visit the most remote and pristine parts of Australia, landing the helicopter and capturing the beauty of the untouched landscape.

The couple hoped their work would convince people that our country was worthy of protecting.

“We make a special point of going to places where there’s unlikely to be people so if there’s a track within 30 or 40 kilometres — even just a dirt track — we’re not going to go there,” Mr Green told Sunday Night.

Richard and Carolyn Green took Sunday Night on their 'flying campervan'

“I’m hoping that bringing these photographs back and putting them on my website and in my book and in galleries we might be able to persuade the general public and, more importantly, our politicians that our environment is really beautiful and worth protecting.”

Mr Davis, who was travelling with the pair when the helicopter crashed, was a former chemical engineer, teacher, ABC producer and documentary filmmaker.

He was an environmentalist and championed for the use of renewable energy.

While at the ABC for eight years he worked on children’s news program Behind The News before leaving to start his own business making science and technology videos to be used in classrooms.

He wrote in a biography on his website that his company had sold more than a million videos to 20,000 schools and TV stations across the company’s 21 years.

The photographer sold his business in the late 80s, moved to Sydney and met his wife.

    
From the Oz:

NSW chopper crash pilot suspended in 2013  

• by: By Matt Coughlan
  
• From: AAP
  
• November 10, 2015 3:31PM
  

THE NSW pilot/owner of a helicopter that crashed and killed three people, including himself, had previously lost his licence for dangerous flying.  

THE bodies of photographer Richard Green, his wife and graphic artist Carolyn, and documentary maker John Davis, were discovered in wreckage found on mountainous terrain in the NSW Watagans National Park, near Cessnock, on Tuesday.

In 2013 Mr Green had his licence suspended for six months after four incidents when his helicopter was at risk of colliding with other aircraft and another when he struck overhead powerlines.

The powerlines tore off part of his helicopter, but after landing and inspecting the damage Mr Green took off again, according to an Administrative Appeal Tribunal judgment.

Mr Green unsuccessfully appealed the decision on grounds it was made with "malice" and the transgressions were not serious.

A Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman said on Tuesday Mr Green was required to demonstrate his aeronautical knowledge and proficiency before the suspension was lifted in March last year.

The trio, all aged in their 70s, had spent Saturday at an anti-mining event at Breeza near Tamworth, protesting the controversial Chinese state-owned Shenhua and Caroona coal mines on the Liverpool Plains, before taking off on their final flight.

No mayday calls or emergency beacons were detected on Saturday, when severe storms hit the Hunter region.

The wreckage was discovered on Monday night and rescuers on Tuesday were working to recover the bodies of Mr Green, 74, Mrs Green, 71, and Mr Davis, 72, as tributes flowed for the committed environmentalists.

Family members became concerned at the weekend when the trio failed to return to Sydney.

Close friend and aviator Dick Smith searched for them in his own helicopter after a call from Mr Davis' wife Felicity.

Mr and Mrs Davis were both Greens candidates for the adjoining northern Sydney beaches electorates Davidson and Pittwater in the recent state elections.

NSW Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham said the trio spent their lives defending Australia's environment.

Former independent MP Tony Windsor said he was interviewed at the Breeza event by Mr Davis about an hour before the fateful helicopter flight took off.

"It sort of leaves a real hollow feeling that, you know, these people were up there being interested in things that were of a concern to us and others and the tragedy occurs on the way home," he told ABC News Breakfast.

Mr Green, once Europe's leading expert in computer graphics, reportedly "made a motza" when he sold his company Online Conferences on the UK stock exchange more than 20 years ago.

Together with his wife, the couple relocated to Sydney's northern beaches, and had spent hours on their beloved EC135 helicopter, travelling to remote areas throughout Australia photographing the landscape.

"Being able to fly our own helicopter provides an opportunity to get to the most inaccessible places," Mr Green wrote on his website.

"The EC135, which we have operated since 1999, is my pride and joy."

Also Dick Smith's close relationship with the trio:

How Dick Smith helped with rescue efforts for missing helicopter

November 10, 2015 12:00am
Ian WalkerThe Daily Telegraph
Aviator and businessman Dick Smith / Picture: Peter Lorimer

AVIATOR Dick Smith took to the skies in his helicopter in the hope of finding his three close friends who perished in yesterday’s helicopter crash tragedy.

The 71-year-old said he first met filmmaker John Davis 50 years ago when both the adventurers aged 21 separately took on climbing sea stack Balls Pyramid — “Australia’s Mount Everest” — in the 1960s.

Separately he went on to befriend Richard and Carolyn through their shared love of helicopters with both men parking their choppers at Terrey Hills since 1980.

“Felicity, John’s wife, rang me and said John’s missing with the Green’s in their helicopter and I said ‘how come John is in the helicopter’ and she said ‘they gave him a lift back’ and that’s when I said ‘we’ll get in the air and look locally’,” Mr Smith said.

“We flew around the valleys in Terrey Hills for half an hour because we were low on fuel then AMSA said they had information that the plane was in the Cessnock area.

“We searched around just in case it had been forced down and they had camping equipment on board, we thought there’s a chance they’ve been forced down, battery’s gone flat and they’re camping so we just flew around.

“We went to their helipad at the request of the search people to check it wasn’t in the hangar.”


Mr Davis was the first person to conquer the imposing Balls Pyramid south of Lord Howe Island in January 1965 after Smith’s unsuccessful attempt just a month earlier in December 1964.

Smith later went back in 1980 and made it to the top.

“So there was always a bit of competition between us because he succeeded and I failed but then I went back and climbed it,” Mr Smith said.

“The very sad thing is I just finished a book on Balls Pyramid, the book is coming out next month and the major person in the book is John Davis.

“For 50 years we’ve been friends and we only had a reunion this year, we had this celebration of his climb in January so it’s a very sad story.

“He had only been working on the proofreading on my book a month ago. It’s too late (it has been printed), it would’ve been in tribute to John Davis.”

When Mr Green moved to Australia he immediately wanted to fly a helicopter to explore the country and he came to Smith for advice.

Dick Smith has just finished a book on Balls Pyramid, which stands proudly off Lord Howe Island.

“When he found I had my helicopter here at Terrey Hills he said ‘is it possible to get approval’ and I said ‘it’s best to get a plot of land so your approach doesn’t annoy anyone’ and he bought a block of land a kilometre from me,” Mr Smith said.

“He just absolutely loved, they loved the outdoors. The three of them were together at that mine site and they were all ultimate greenies and loved the wilderness and even though they were quite separate they all loved the outdoors. It’s so sad they were doing what they loved.”

RIP  -  P2