An off-the-cuff decision to practice an advanced manoeuvre during a training session preceded a helicopter crash on Queensland’s Pannikin Island in February, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has found.

An instructor and student were flying a Utility Helicopters R22 chopper together when it went down on Pannikin, leaving the instructor with serious injuries.

In a report released on Tuesday, the ATSB said a decision at the end of the lesson to practice “torque turns”, a manoeuvre that involves quickly completing a 180 degree change in the direction of flight, was unplanned.

“If the decision to conduct the torque turns had been agreed before the flight, this would have allowed for a full ground briefing to establish the torque turn procedures, discuss the conduct of the manoeuvre and

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