Longtime West Coast helicopter pilot Dave Saxton has died in Marlborough, aged 78.
Mr Saxton was one of the original helicopter deer hunters of Fiordland, a businessman and a longtime Haast resident.
However, his later life was marked by a conviction for stealing greenstone and by the deaths of his sons.
In 2007 he was convicted of stealing pounamu with his son, Morgan, and sentenced to more than two years in jail. Those convictions were later quashed.
Morgan Saxton died in a helicopter crash in 2008. In 2011, Mr Saxton’s other son, Darren, died in a car crash aged 24.
