The picturesque wedding at a luxury golf resort that turned into disaster
Friday, 18 June 2021
What started as the best day of their lives – a wedding at a luxury golf resort overlooking the mountains – ended with the bride and groom in hospital after a helicopter crash. Sam Sherwood reports.
Mahdi Zougub and Fay El Hanafy started getting ready for their big day about 8am.
The Christchurch couple had already postponed their wedding several times – once due to the March 15 terror attacks, and then because of Covid-19.
A foggy Saturday morning at Terrace Downs Golf Resort, where the nuptials were taking place, gave way to a sunny day. Clear skies showed off the scenic mountain backdrop in rural Canterbury.
**READ MORE:
* Helicopter suffered 'total power loss' prior to crash
* Wedding photographer who hates flying recounts moment helicopter plummeted to ground
* Newlyweds injured in helicopter crash had delayed wedding after terror attack and Covid
* Bride and groom injured in 'horrible' Canterbury helicopter crash
**
Photographer Rachel Jordan was there early, capturing the dress, make-up and pre-wedding nerves. Zougub and El Hanafy were so impressed by her award-winning portfolio, they moved the date again to ensure her availability.
The morning went smoothly, Jordan says, with “good energy in the air”. Everyone was in a “happy mood”.
Hours later, that would all change.
Shortly after 11.30am, eight golfers made their way to the resort’s 10th hole.
The men, all from Christchurch, were having a golfing weekend and were set to stay the night at Castle Hill, about an hour away.
Due to the frost on the course they had to start on the back nine. Halfway through they stopped for lunch in the clubhouse, where preparations were under way for the resort’s first wedding since reopening after the death of the former owner.
They then took to the front nine in their two groups of four.
Around this time, the wedding was taking place elsewhere on the course.
Rachel Jordan describes El Hanafy’s dress as a “gorgeous couture style” with a long train and a long veil. She wore sparkly shoes and was “simply stunning”.
Zougub was sporting a fresh haircut from his good friend, Wasseim Alsati, who survived being shot during the March 15 terror attack.
It was an intimate ceremony with about 20 people, Jordan says. The rest of the wedding party arrived shortly after for the much larger reception.
Jordan took some family photos, before they rushed off to the helicopter about 3pm.
The trio boarded the Robinson 44 helicopter owned by Wyndon Aviation, heading for an elevated peak.
Flying was “super terrifying” to Jordan, but she understood the importance of a mountain photo for the couple.
“It’s something special that clients want, and when you’re a wedding photographer you just kind of have to go with it.”
Zougub and El Hanafy, neither of whom had flown in a helicopter before, were also nervous. The pilot told Jordan the weather was looking fine, but that turbulence was a possibility.
“I literally said, ‘whatever you do, just don’t make us crash because I don’t like flying’.”
The helicopter took off and Jordan started taking photographs. About one minute into the flight – roughly 100 metres in the air – Jordan heard the engine shut off.
She looked over and saw the pilot “freaking out with her controls, and then we were in free-fall”.
“I was just shocked because it happened so fast, we weren’t saying anything. I’m looking at her like, ‘Oh my God, I hope she lands this thing OK’.”
Oamaru resident Margaret Munro was walking along the grass at nearby Quickenberry Lodge when she heard the helicopter take off. She saw it rise above the treetops and move westward to her right.
“It seemed to sink lower and lower, and I thought it might want to land on the golf course. Then I realised the rotors were just swinging free.
“It continued to move straight ahead on its westward course while losing altitude. Then it suddenly disappeared, and three seconds later I heard the thump.”
The golfers were on the 7th hole when helicopter took off. Four of the golfers were on the green of the par 5, while the other four were coming down the fairway.
They saw it fly over them going up the 8th fairway. Then the sound of the engine stopped, and they could no longer see the helicopter.
They knew something was wrong and rushed to the scene. They found the crashed chopper upright and basically in one piece, excluding the tail. The passengers and the pilot were still inside – in shock and seriously injured, but they were conscious.
Two of the golfers called emergency services while the others attended to the pilot and the passengers.
Munro had walked to a nearby ridge and saw people standing near the helicopter. She initially thought the passengers had walked away uninjured, but then heard screaming.
“It was horrifying,” she recalls.
‘I knew something was terribly wrong’
Jordan, who lost consciousness before the helicopter crashed, was in “total agony” when she woke. She knew her back was broken. She gave one of the golfer her husband’s number.
“When I heard the tone of [his] voice, I knew something was terribly wrong,” Eric Jordan says.
“I instantly knew that she was likely very scared about what was happening.”
Zougub called a relative as he lay on the ground beside the wreckage and passed the phone to one of the golfers to explain what happened.
Ronnie Ronalde, operations manager for CPG Hotel Group which runs the property for the owner, rushed to the scene, along with a surgeon and other wedding guests.
“We just tried to care for them, make them as comfortable as we can,” Ronalde said.
Paramedics eventually arrived with Jordan, Zougub and El Hanafy flown to Christchurch Hospital by the Westpac Rescue helicopter. The pilot was taken to hospital via ambulance.
The injury tally from the crash was extensive. Zougub suffered a broken back, while El Hanafy also had a broken back, foot, and legs.
The pilot suffered significant injuries, including broken bones and cuts.
Jordan has spinal fractures, five fracture ribs, lung laceration, fractured sternum, a broken arm and fractured feet and ankles.
When Eric Jordan arrived in hospital the following evening with his 10-year-old son, he found his wife covered in tubes. She was hooked up to several machines, and her arm and both legs were in casts.
A long rehabilitation process awaits each of the group of four. Jordan is likely to be in hospital for about six weeks and worries she may never walk properly again.
“I’m on constant painkillers. I can move my legs, thankfully, but I can’t feel my feet yet. I can’t move my feet.”
Eric Jordan says El Hanafy’s parents visited him and his wife on Monday. The family are “lovely people”, he says.
“We’ve all formed a special bond together. They talked about keeping in close touch to keep everybody’s spirits up.”
‘Total power loss’
An investigation into the helicopter crash is under way. On Wednesday, Wyndon Aviation said although the inquiry was in its early stages, it had been established the engine in the helicopter suffered a “total power loss shortly after take off”.
“Put simply, the engine had stopped.”
The company said such an event was a “very rare occurrence”.
“This accident will again raise the profile of the Robinson helicopter, but it has to be remembered the power plant in the R44 is provided by a reputable third-party manufacturer.”
A coronial inquest in Queenstown this week heard there has been 313 Robinson R44 crashes worldwide, resulting in 176 deaths. The cause of the crash was unknown in nearly 60 per cent of the cases.
In 2016, TAIC added Robinson helicopters to its watchlist, which resulted in organisations such as DOC banning their staff from using them.
Nearly a week on from the helicopter crash, Eric Jordan is reflecting on how the family's lives have likely changed forever. The couple were both at the height of their careers.
“Rachel and I both had our compasses pointed in a particular direction … and this event came out of nowhere like a freight train and absolutely turned our compass 180 degrees the opposite way. [It] had us completely rethinking our entire future within a couple of days.
“I can say that what we hope will come out of this is that as people we will grow from this, that we will get stronger from this and that we will ultimately heal and come out the other side as better people.”