NZSAS elite soldier died after ‘very high risk’ US training move

New documents identify the high level of risk involved in the technique which cost a NZSAS soldier his life. Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea died after stepping from a helicopter to the roof of a specialist NZSAS training building. Now the military says the roof area should have been surrounded by nets to catch the falling soldier. David Fisher reports.

A safety review of a key NZSAS training facility where an elite soldier died has identified the activity in which he was involved as “very high” risk.

It also suggested the possibility that the NZSAS would not be using the helicopter-based technique that was being practised when the fatal incident happened.

Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea died in May 2019 while part of an NZSAS training session with elite United States special forces helicopters at the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) Battlefield Training Facility near Ardmore.

Kahotea was killed while practising “bump” landings on the roof of the Method Of Entry (MOE) house where the NZSAS hone skills needed to storm buildings.

The cause of his fatal fall remains unclear after the New Zealand investigation found it came when the helicopter moved away from the roof while the United States inquiry said Kahotea tripped on pipes protruding from the top of the roof.

A safety review of the MOE house, obtained through the Official Information Act, focused on the guardrails around the top of the building which slotted into the protruding pipe.

During the NZSAS training exercise in which Kahotea died, the guardrails were removed to enable the helicopter to move next to the building.

The safety review - a recommendation to the Court of Inquiry into Kahotea’s death - suggested that a repeat of “bump” training wasn’t a certainty.

It stated: “Temporary safety catch nets to be considered if future bump training is to be conducted.”

The “bump” landing technique was not a familiar practice to the NZSAS when posed by the visiting 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment for the joint training Exercise Vector Balance.

It involves a helicopter pushing a wheel against the rooftop of a building as a brace to hold the aircraft in place while those on board disembark. Military sources have told the Herald it is not a technique used by New Zealand’s military helicopters.

The US inquiry report showing the pole stump it believes led to the fatal fall of Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea.

The Court of Inquiry report said the US flight commander asked for the NZSAS to include “bump” landings “for the purposes of aircrew proficiency”.

The safety review also recommended changes to the expected training techniques the NZSAS carry out on the MOE house.

It identified a range of training activities involving the roof of the MOE house and the guardrails, including fast-roping from helicopters and the “hover jump” technique in which a helicopter lowers itself to the roof from where troopers jump down to the building.

For fast-roping and rappelling, it recommended removing only those guardrails necessary for the training tasks.

For the hover jump, it recommended those take place inside the guardrails and - if not practical to do so - to only remove those “essential” for the training session.

The safety review said the roof of the MOE house was one where there was a “high risk of fall” once the guardrails were removed to allow training to take place. It also identified cavities on the roof area which created a risk when the hatches were removed.

1st New Zealand Special Air Services Regiment (1NZSAS) pallbearers carrying Lance Corporal Nicholas Kahotea towards the regiment's wall of remembrance. Photo / NZ Army

The Court of Inquiry found that the NZSAS “A” Squadron had prepared for the training session by studying the US special operations manual, which didn’t include any information about “bump” landings.

It also found a lack of clarity over when it was decided to introduce “bump” landings into the training schedule and conflicting accounts over who was briefed beforehand.

It also reported that “commanders did not fully appreciate the risk profile” of a “bump” landing and “this led to the ‘bump’ being overlooked as a potentially dangerous deployment method”.

When Kahotea and his patrol boarded the helicopter, it was dark whereas other patrols had practised in daylight. Contrary to usual training practice, he had not had the opportunity for dry-runs or a practice without carrying his full combat rig.

Instead, fully loaded and wearing vision-restricting night vision wear, he was performing the technique for the first time - and doing so at the higher level of the MOE house after the US pilot changed the dropoff location.

WorkSafe sought to prosecute the NZDF over Kahotea’s death but the case was thrown out at the High Court after the military argued it had an exemption from health and safety laws for certain types of training.

In this case, the NZDF said that the training exercise was to develop counter-terrorism capabilities to an “operational level of capability” - the highest state of readiness for the military force.

Major General John Boswell, in reviewing the Court of Inquiry findings, was critical of the paperwork prepared for the training exercise because of “inconsistency” as to whether it was covered by the exemption.

He said he expected a commander relying on the exemption would make an assessment with the “utmost care” that was “documented in a precise manner”. Instead, the assessment and documents “fell well below my expectations”.

The Herald has asked the Coroner’s office if it will carry out a full coronial inquiry into the death or when the inquest will be held. It is not uncommon for the Coroner to accept a Court of Inquiry in place of carrying out its own inquiry but in this case NZDF’s finding clashed with that of the US. The Coroner’s office has yet to respond.

David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.