Defence chopper on latest rescue mission

The car clears the water on its way to dry land.

The Air Force Defence helicopter that was used to lift the car from the Mohaka River was the same one used in the Pike River mine disaster in 2013.

The NH90 was called in to lift debris and clear the mine's ventilation shafts after the mine exploded, killing 29 miners.

When questioned about the task of accessing the river at the foot of the steep gorge, air component commander Kevin McEvoy likened its scale to Pike River. "Obviously there's that really big gorge the vehicle was in and the position."

A Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter works with the New Zealand police dive team to recover a car from the Mohaka River in northern Hawke's Bay on Monday.

Mr McEvoy said the helicopter hovered at around 200m to lift the car which weighed around 1500kg.

"We had to lift the vehicle relatively slowly, so we could lift it out so the water receded out of the vehicle to lighten the load."

Mr McEvoy said the terrain surrounding the location of the car meant it was a "challenging task". The car was rigged with strops before it was connected to the helicopter prior to its recovery. "In conjunction with some really robust planning by police the task was really easy in the end."

When asked about the cost of the retrieval mission, he said: "The cost in some respects are able to be managed by the fact that we got that great training from it."

There was "no doubt the helicopter wouldn't fail to retrieve the car", and Mr McEvoy said he had "full confidence the crew and the helicopter was more than capable of lifting the car".

The police divers were responsible for the initial rigging but the defence force sent down a safety diver to check the integrity of the car so nothing fell from it as it was lifted.

Mr McEvoy said "it was a successful mission, it just reinforces that the defence force is ready 365 days of the year". He said it was not the first time the defence force had supported the people of New Zealand.

"We certainly got great training from it. It was a really good example of the defence force working with other government agencies."