A 50-year-old flying instructor has died and his teenage student is in a serious condition in hospital following a helicopter crash in Sydney's south-west this afternoon.
Terrifying footage obtained by 9News shows the moment the helicopter – a Robinson R22 – plummeted towards the ground at Bankstown Airport following low-level aerial exercises.
It rapidly lost altitude and crashed through multiple trees and into a car on Birch Street.
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The instructor was treated by paramedics but died at the scene.
The 19-year-old student was helped out of the wreckage before being treated for serious injuries and taken to Liverpool Hospital, where he is now in a serious condition.
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"I was in class on the other side of the airport, and then one of the people in my class got a call from one of his friends saying that she was in one of the warehouses and she heard something and came running out," a witness from Bankstown Flying School said.
"Obviously tried to help, pulled the student out who is pretty shaken up, pretty bad."
A crime scene was set up by police, who will prepare a report for the coroner.
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The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will launch an investigation into the cause of the crash.
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