New Zealand: Remains of a helicopter that crashed on the Fox Glacier, a popular tourist site on the West Coast of the south Island. (Photo courtesy: NZ Police)
Six tourists and a pilot were killed on Saturday when their helicopter crashed into the Fox Glacier, a popular tourist site, on the West Coast of the south Island due to bad weather, New Zealand police said.
The sightseeing helicopter plunged into the Fox Glacier, a popular tourist site on the West Coast of the south Island, with weather conditions reported to be heavily overcast and raining at the time.
A paramedic and members of an alpine cliff rescue team were winched down to the crash site in a heavily crevassed area halfway up the glacier early this afternoon, but found no survivors.
Efforts were under way to recover the bodies but police said this could take time because of the atrocious weather.
“I’m not going to risk any more lives, we’ve lost seven,” inspector John Canning told reporters.
The names and nationalities of the pilot and six passengers were not immediately available.
The crash debris is spread over several hundred metres in deep ice crevices. A dark scorch mark is clearly visible on the glacier over a wide area where the helicopter impacted and wreckage wedged between house-sized blocks of ice.
The downed helicopter was reported to belong to Alpine Adventures, a company that advertises itself as an “experienced helicopter flight-seeing company providing visitors with a diverse range of South Island scenic helicopter flights and private charters in some of most spectacular alpine and coastal regions of New Zealand”.
The helicopter is believed to be a six-passenger Eurocopter “Squirrel” operated by south Westland firm Alpine Adventures.
Five years ago, nine people including four tourists were killed when a plane carrying a party of skydivers crashed on take off at Fox Glacier airport.
Fox Glacier is 13 kilometres (eight miles) long and is listed as one of the most accessible glaciers in the world, attracting thousands of tourists each year.