Ian Macdonald, 66, and Admasu Tefera, 16, died after Mr Macdonald’s Guimbal Cabri G2 helicopter crashed near the village of Ingleton in June 2022, a hearing in Northallerton heard on Monday.
The pair were about to land after an 80-minute-long flight around the Lake District to give Admasu, a German student visiting the UK, his first helicopter ride when the aircraft plummeted vertically into a tree and caught fire.
A jury of five women and six men were read an investigation report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which found the extensive damage caused by the fire meant it was not possible to conclude what caused the crash.
The report said investigators had considered whether there was a mechanical failure, an “incorrect pilot response to unexpected environmental conditions”, an inadvertent intervention on the controls by the passenger or whether Mr Macdonald had suffered a medical episode.
But the court heard the report’s conclusion that “the evidence recovered in this investigation was not sufficient to determine the cause of the accident”.
Investigators found there was evidence from the crash site and from witnesses that the engine was running and the rotor blades were turning when the aircraft hit the tree but other mechanical failures could not be ruled out due to the fire.
They also said they could not rule out “pilot handling or undesirable environmental conditions leading to a loss of control” but stressed that Mr Macdonald had 20 years of experience as a pilot, half of which was on this type of helicopter.
The AAIB report, read to the court, said: “He was not a student or low hours helicopter pilot, he had 20 years of experience, and he did not routinely fly another helicopter type with an anti-clockwise rotating main rotor.
“As a consequence, his instinctive pedal input would likely have been the correct one.
“Approximately half of his total flying experience was on the Cabri G2 and he was operating in a familiar environment.”
Home Office pathologist Sam Hoggard told the inquest Admasu died from a blunt head injury before the fire consumed the aircraft.
He said Mr Macdonald’s likely cause of death was a combination of injuries sustained in the crash and the effects of the subsequent fire.
But he added that the pilot had coronary heart disease and he could not rule out a fatal medical event immediately before the crash.
Senior coroner Jon Heath asked Dr Hoggard if he could rule out Mr Macdonald suffering a medical incident which, if not fatal, could have impaired his ability to fly the aircraft.
The pathologist replied: “It’s possible.
“There was nothing to support that being the case. But I can’t exclude that either.”
Mr Heath told the jury that a cause of death should be determined on the “balance of probabilities” and, on that basis, it should be recorded as injuries sustained in the crash and the effects of fire.
The court heard that Mr Macdonald had about 538 hours of flying experience and approximately 258 of these were on this type of helicopter.
Mr Heath told the court experts at the AAIB had not been able to establish the cause of the crash and, therefore, it was not the jurors’ role to make this determination.
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The jury returned a narrative conclusion that both Mr Macdonald and Admasu died as a result of a helicopter crash.
Shortly after the crash on June 20 2022, people said Admasu was an exchange student who had been living with a nearby family for the past three months.
Mr Macdonald was said to be a well-liked member of the community of nearby Burton in Lonsdale.
