'I brought my baby home in a body bag': Grieving mum speaks of moments after crash

Wednesday, 16 June 2021

James Patterson Gardner and his mother Louisa “Choppy” Patterson. James was 18 when he died in a helicopter crash in 2015. His mother is the owner of the helicopter company.

Helicopter pilot Louisa “Choppy” Patterson was met by a friend as she disembarked from the rescue chopper.

“I brought my baby home in a body bag,” she told him.

Hours earlier she had wrapped her scarf around 18-year-old son James’ body and lay with him in moss, near the wreckage of the Robinson helicopter he had been flying in.

He was bleeding, which gave her hope that he was still alive, but his open blue eyes were unresponsive.

* Helicopter crash that claimed two lives near Queenstown 'avoidable'

As two more people die in a Robinson helicopter crash, a US lawyer representing crash victims and families labels the helicopter 'unsafe and unairworthy'. (Video first published in November, 2016).

* Investigation finds no clear reason for helicopter crash, families call for ban

* Owner's son killed in Queenstown helicopter crash

“It was as if he had stepped out of the wreckage, taken some steps and then lay down on the ground,” she told Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame during an inquest in Queenstown on Wednesday.

James Patterson Gardner had been on a training flight in February 2015 with Over The Top instructor Stephen Anthony Combe, 42, of Wānaka.

Stephen Combe, the helicopter pilot killed in a crash near Queenstown in 2015.

Both men were killed when their Robinson R44 helicopter broke up midflight in the Lochy Valley, halfway between Queenstown and Kingston.

In 2016, a Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) report into the crash found no clear reason for the crash, but concluded that the rotor blades had struck the cabin.

Patterson was the owner, chief executive officer and chief pilot at helicopter company Over The Top.

Her son was due to leave for university the next day and had taken his last opportunity for a flying lesson with Combe, an experienced and respected instructor.

“At this time I had a mother feeling that maybe something was wrong with James,” she said.

James Louis Patterson Gardner, 18, died in a 2015 Queenstown chopper crash. He’s pictured here with then Prime Minister John Key.

Checks showed it had been at least five minutes since the last GPS signal was received from the helicopter, at 1.40pm. They were usually received at two minute intervals.

Patterson and two staff members headed off in a helicopter to the Robinson’s last known position.

She requested someone call 111 and get the local search and rescue team to join the search.

Soon after 3.15pm, a farmworker called to say he had found wreckage.

“I asked him whether he found the helicopter. He could not speak. I realised he had seen something awful.”

An aerial view of the wreckage of the helicopter crash.

The farm manager asked if she wanted to keep going.

“I said ‘I have to’.”

She came across Combe first, and said it appeared he had been thrown from the helicopter.

The Robinson R44 involved in a 2015 crash where two men were killed.

About 6 metres away she found the hull of the helicopter and her son, in the moss.

After emergency services arrived, she travelled with him to the base of search and rescue helicopter company Heliworks.

As they landed, the pilot and ground crew saluted.

Patterson walked to her friend Henry van Asch and told him: “I brought my baby home in a body bag.”

Patterson told the inquest her son was very responsible for his age and a quick learner.

He had a passion for aviation and planned to specialise in aeronautical engineering.

Combe was a very experienced pilot. He trained in the British Royal Marines in 1998 and served in Iraq before immigrating to New Zealand in 2003.

He knew the limitations of Robinson helicopters, had undertaken multiple training courses in them, and initiated a rule at Over The Top that they were not to be flown where winds were 25 knots or more.

Patterson told the inquest she believed the men would not have died if they were in a different helicopter.

She purchased the Robertson R44 in 2005 and was surprised to later learn that buyers in the US had to sign an addendum outlining further restrictions on the machines’ use. It included restrictions on the number passengers pilots could carry according to their experience, and that pilots needed specialised training with the company.

The addendum was not required in New Zealand.

“Had we been presented with such a document we would have questioned the suitability of this aircraft,” she said.

“It was the only Robinson in my fleet. I will never again allow my pilots to fly in a Robinson helicopter.”

It would be terrible for another family to go through what she had been through, she said.

“Somehow God has left me with my aviation knowledge, having taken James, to try and enhance aviation safety.

“This seems to be my mandate and reason.”

The inquest is continuing.