Received

A team of aviation experts will spend at least three days combing through wreckage to determine the cause of a Victorian helicopter crash.

The aircraft came down at Mt Disappointment, north of Melbourne, on Thursday morning, killing a pilot and four passengers.

Meat industry boss Paul Troja, 73, has been identified as one of the victims.

The Albert Park man's fifth grandchild was born a day earlier, his son Luke Toja told Nine News, revealing his father vowed this trip would be his last before retiring.

Mr Troja, the chairman of Warragul-based meat processing company Radfords, has been remembered as a passionate and accomplished leader.

A 50-year-old Inverloch woman and two NSW men, aged 59 and 70, were also on board the helicopter, flown by a 32-year-old Cheltenham man.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said crews from Canberra and Melbourne will take at least three days to analyse the helicopter crash site.

"What we do know is it was in company with another helicopter from the same operator and that they lost visual contact," Mr Mitchell said.

Drone analysis of the helicopter's flight path, along with assessment of flight control records and weather conditions, will be part of the investigation.

Mr Mitchell said the helicopter operator Microflite had a very strong safety record.

The company has suspended all services until at least Tuesday.

"The Microflite family have been deeply shocked and devastated by this tragic incident," the company said in a statement, which also acknowledged the loss of a highly respected pilot.

The crash is Victoria's deadliest aviation disaster since February 2017, when five people were killed after a charter plane crashed into Melbourne's Essendon DFO shopping centre.

That crash was the state's worst civil aviation accident for 30 years.

The helicopter that crashed was one of two flying business trip passengers in convoy from Batman Park in central Melbourne to Ulupna, near the Victoria/NSW border.

The other raised the alarm before landing safely at Moorabbin.

There was low cloud over Mt Disappointment the morning of the crash, police said.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said the crash investigation was complex because of the rugged terrain and wreckage strewn across the area.

It took investigators four hours to reach the scene after the chopper was first located by air wing.

Bulldozers and graders are expected to finish creating an access road to the site by Friday afternoon.

"It's difficult terrain. It is not friendly for people just to wander into," Mr Patton told reporters in Melbourne.

"We don't want to leave any stone unturned."

Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville thanked emergency services for their efforts on the ground and passed on her condolences to the victim's families.

"It's been a terrible tragedy," she said.

"I know that there'll be many families, friends and colleagues grieving and my thoughts are with them."

The ATSB's preliminary report is expected to take six to eight weeks.

© AAP 2022

A child under five has died with COVID-19 in South Australia as the state winds back reporting of classroom contacts.

They were one of two people to die with the virus in the latest reporting period, along with a woman in her 80s.

"This was a young person that had other very severe health problems and in fact had been on a palliative care pathway," Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier told reporters on Friday.

"But because they did test positive for COVID, it will be counted as one of our COVID deaths."

Prof Spurrier said she understood the child had contracted the virus from a relative before testing positive at the Women's and Children's Hospital.

The child's family members are believed to have been fully vaccinated.

"Unfortunately for this little one, they were not old enough to be vaccinated," Prof Spurrier said.

"But by vaccinating ourselves we also protect those people that are more susceptible in our community."

About 57 per cent of children aged five to 11 in SA have been vaccinated, a figure Prof Spurrier described as being well below other age groups.

SA Health on Friday reported 5134 new infections, while the number of people in hospital fell slightly to 169 including seven in intensive care.

Public schools will no longer have to notify parents if there is a single case in their child's classroom in a bid to ease "burdensome" contact tracing pressures.

Instead they will notify parents if five children in a class test positive over the course of a week.

"The schools have been asked to (report) across year level and they are providing these very neat summaries of the number of cases across year levels," Prof Spurrier said.

"As a parent, I've found that very helpful."

Vaccine mandates for education and passenger transport workers have been scrapped as the state prepares for the eventual removal of the emergency management declaration.

But Prof Spurrier said healthcare and aged care workers would still need to be vaccinated and businesses could continue to enforce their own policies.

© AAP 2022

Two would-be thieves have admitted their role in killing a Victorian man who confronted them, jumped on their bonnet and was dragged for 80 metres in the dead of night.

Floyd Hennessy and Brandon Cummings were looking for tools to steal from parked cars when Peter Stojanovic ran outside from a house party and made a beeline for them.

The 53-year-old screamed at the pair and jumped on the bonnet of their car. Cummings told Hennessy, then a learner driver, to floor it and swerve the vehicle in order to shake off Mr Stojanovic.

He was killed after he came off and was dragged for 80 metres at about 60 km/h at Dingley Village, in Melbourne's southeast, in December 2019.

A trail of blood and torn clothes was left behind.

Hennessy, 21, has pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing death while his passenger Cummings, 20, pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering life.

The younger man's barrister, Jason Gullaci, claimed the men thought they had to escape from Mr Stojanovic when he climbed onto the car.

"They were up to no good in the early hours of the morning, acting in a very stupid, idiotic and immature kind of way," Mr Gullaci told the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday.

"There was a real possibility there would have been an attempt (by their victim) to break the windows and assault them - in their minds."

But Justice Amanda Fox said Cummings was solely responsible for his own conduct.

"There's an explanation for why he did what he did. Things could have gone differently and no doubt everyone wishes they had," she said.

Hennessy was due to face a pre-sentence hearing alongside Cummings on Friday, but could not attend for health reasons.

He'll face court again on May 5. Justice Fox is expected to sentence both men on May 19.

© AAP 2022