Acting Warrant Officer Darren Smith, DSD
Warrant Officer Smith serves as a helicopter crewman. On 25 April 2010, while serving in the rank of Flight Sergeant, was one of the crewmen on an Iroquois formation tasked for ceremonial flypasts in the Wellington area. As the formation was travelling south, it encountered adverse weather and became separated. One helicopter continued to Wellington, the second, with Flight Sergeant Smith aboard, returned to Paraparaumu. The location of the third helicopter was unknown. At dawn, Flight Sergeant Smith’s aircraft returned to Pukerua Bay, where it was thought the missing helicopter might be located. He was offloaded to begin a ground search for missing crew. After climbing in the rugged terrain he located the wreckage of the crashed aircraft and found one survivor. A civilian rescue helicopter had arrived by this time. He prepared his badly injured colleague for extraction using unfamiliar equipment. Once this had been completed, with no further trauma, he remained at the site until the arrival of the Police