Before the collision, ATC instructed the helicopter to maintain visual separation and to pass behind the inbound jet—important instructions that the Black Hawk crew seems not to have heard.

Whakatāne residents have had front-row seats to a demonstration of heli-logging using a Black Hawk helicopter during the past week. Whakatāne District Council has contracted a logging firm to fell trees on two blocks of pine trees on steep terrain overlooking the town along Valley Rd.