Kim Dotcom meets with Sir Paul Holmes - after an emergency landing along the way

Sir Paul Holmes and Kim Dotcom share a love of controversy, and a nose for a media moment.

They got both today as the accused pirate flew from his rented Coastesville mansion north-west of Auckland to meet Sir Paul at his Hawke's Bay home.

Mr Dotcom tweeted that he "Almost died to meet the Knight" - a reference to an emergency landing midway through his helicopter trip south.

"Will be late for dinner baby. Fuel dropped to zero with rotor speed warning," Mr Dotcom tweeted dramatically at 1.55pm.

A "bumpy" emergency landing followed on a remote forestry road.

From the giant German's later tweets, it appeared a "loose wire" was the culprit rather than a leak in the tank or something more serious.

After the gauge was fixed about an hour later, the flight resumed without incident. 

The registration mark on the helicopter indicates it is a Eurocopter EC 130 B4 owned by Silver Fern Helicopters, an outfit located on the Hibiscus Coast near Coatesville.

ABOVE: "Great afternoon with Sir Paul. Legends may sleep but they never die," tweeted Mr Dotcom. Sir Paul, driving his golf cart, appears to be suppressing an impish grin over his late-career controversy.

The accused pirate described the loose wire as "weird" - a mere hint at wrongdoing that soon had many of his army of social media followers crying "conspiracy" (although not much of a conspiracy, NBR would note, given there was still fuel in the tank).

Mr Dotcom has the distinction of being the ailing broadcaster's final interview on TVNZ's Q+A, in an episode screened on November 18 last year (see part one here and part two here).

Sir Paul has been involved in actual air dramas. In 1989, a helicopter he was flying in crashed into the ocean near Gisborne. Cameraman Joe Von Dinklage was killed in the accident. Sir Paul had further close calls, including crashing his 40s-era biplane on the last day of 2004.

Bodyguard Wayne Tempero (foreground) after the emergency landing.

According to Mr Dotcom's tweets, Mr Tempero (who faces firearms charges related ot the January 20, 2012 Dotcom Mansion swoop) joked, "We could really use one of those raid choppers now".

Mr Dotcom's pilot checks the rotors after the emergency landing.

The pilot identified a loose wire, according to Mr Dotcom's tweets.

BLACK SHIRT DOWN: A selfie by Mr Dotcom, who tweeted at one point, "Pilot trying to identify the fault. I have 1 bar of reception. Start rationing water :-)."  NBR notes there was enough mobile bandwidth to post photos to Instagram. 

In another tweet he said "Apparently the closest road is a looooong way from here" - raising the possibility of an impromptu Mega-diet. That spectre diminished as the flight resumed about an hour later. 

Back in the air: "#Hero!!! :-)" tweeted Mr Dotcom.

Photos via @KimDotcom.

Swim at Paul's (via @misselderholmes)

Swim at Paul's (via @misselderholmes)