Police and air safety investigators are combing the wreckage of the seven-seat Bell Jet Ranger 206 long range helicopter after a fatal crash in a remote location in the Snowy Mountains on Monday night.
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About 11.55pm on Monday emergency services found the wreckage of a helicopter about 200 metres east of the Snowy Mountains Highway at Kiandra Flats, south of Talbingo, near where the aircraft was last tracked.
Two people were on board. They were a 64-year-woman and a 75-year-old man, both from Sydney.
They died in what was described as a "horrific scene" by Monaro Police District Commander Superintendent John Klepczarek.
It is understood from flight tracking data that the helicopter had taken off from Canberra airport and there is some suggestion that the Bell was flying in the company of other helicopters, although this is yet to be confirmed.
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The crashed helicopter was registered to Peter Woodland from Terrey Hills, the principal of home decor company Woodland Home Products.
It was the second helicopter crash in the area in more than three weeks.
"We may have reports of this helicopter on Sunday afternoon landing safely due to weather conditions and then we have the report of the [same] chopper crashing last night," Superintendent Klepczarek said.
"We are trying to piece together information from those two timeframes at the moment to actually determine when and what occurred.
"We have reports that the aircraft was down in the area on Sunday afternoon but what happened since we don't know."
A number of people have come forward with information and police are speaking to a number of witnesses in the area but police are urging anyone with information to come forward.
There had been no radio communication from the helicopter but notification that the aircraft was missing first came from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, which is attached to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
This would appear to indicate that the Jet Ranger was equipped with an emergency locator transmitter, although AMSA could not be contacted for confirmation of this.
The Kiandra Flats crash comes after another helicopter crashed in the region on March 11, with the pilot and two of the passengers were being flown to hospital.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators reached the scene on Tuesday and are expected to remain on site for 24 hours..
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
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