Pilot Phil O’Driscoll, 45, was flown to Canberra Hospital in a serious but stable condition with head and spinal injuries after he was rescued from the wreckage of the crash.

ACT Ambulance Service operations manager Matt Smith said the Toll Southcare Helicopter was alerted to the rescue operation around 2.30pm on Tuesday.

“The helicopter arrived at the scene at approximately 3.15pm,” Mr Smith said.

“They assessed they were unable to land at the site of the accident, so the flight paramedic and flight doctor were winched down.

“They commenced treatment of a single male patient on the scene and they winched that patient up into the aircraft.”

Mr O’Driscoll was an experienced pilot with more than 20 years’ flying experience and he was lauded as a hero after a near-fatal accident in Canada in 2005, in which he crashed into a cliff to avoid hitting people.

He recently helped fight the blaze in southwest Sydney that scorched close to 4000 hectares and was working for the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project at the time of the crash.

Mr Smith said paramedics found Mr O’Driscoll outside the wreckage of the helicopter, but could not say how far away.

“Like anyone when an aircraft falls out of the sky from a height, the damage that can be done and the injuries can be significant,” Mr Smith said.

“He was quite lucky.”

Mr O’Driscoll crashed in an isolated section of the Kosciuszko park near Cabramurra and could not be reached by road.

He was flying a UH-1H "huey" helicopter, and had been helping with drilling work for Snowy Hydro 2.0.

“The crash site was in an area that was unable to be accessed by road, and the helicopter was unable to land on site,” Mr Smith said.

“All rescue operations that we undertake with the rescue helicopter are dangerous.

“But the intensive care paramedics, the flight doctors and all the crew are well-trained. That mitigates the risk of these types of activities.”

A team from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in Canberra has been sent to investigate the crash.

With AAP.