The crashed helicopter flown by pilot Neal Andrews.
The firefighting pilot who escaped a helicopter crash unscathed says he's happy nobody was hurt and doesn't think mechanical failure or pilot error caused the crash.
Neal Andrews said he was grateful to be safe and to have helped the big firefighting effort in Marlborough this week.
A huge blaze tore across around 400ha yesterday but 60 firefighters and an "aerial assault" from helicopters and planes combined with light rain to suck the life out of the fire.
Mr Andrews, a pilot with Precision Helicopters in Blenheim, crashed in shallow water about 11am yesterday.
"I've been in the industry a long time. And things can go wrong and obviously it did go wrong yesterday."
Mr McNamara said the cost of hiring a helicopter for firefighting usually cost roughly $1,500 to $3,500 an hour.
Precision Helicopters chief pilot Matt Newton said Mr Andrews was about 3m above the river when he encountered trouble.
"He just was loading the bucket ... and the river was flowing pretty fast and it pulled the bucket back and one of the ropes hooked around the back of his skid and he couldn't keep up with it."