Brother helps in desperate search
Sonar searching of Lake Wanaka for Matthew Wallis’ crashed helicopter has located an item 47 metres under water, but police cannot confirm it is the wreckage.
Matthew crashed after leaving Wanaka Airport on a short solo flight to Mt Aspiring National Park on Saturday afternoon.
An oil slick was spotted a kilometre north of Stevensons Island, in the south-east corner of the Otago lake, and wreckage was found on the island’s shoreline.
Detective Derek Shaw said search teams had zoned in on a ‘‘distinct area of interest’’ around the slick.
Items consistent with Matthew’s helicopter had been found, but no actual wreckage. Sonar had located an item at a depth of 47m, Shaw said.
‘‘It may be that the aircraft is not all in one piece,’’ he said.
Navy divers, who are helping the police dive squad because of the depth of the lake, have arrived in Dunedin and will be flown to Wanaka boost the search effort.
Shaw said the weather ‘‘isn’t flash’’, but the lake was flat at the moment.
Family members have also been helping with the search, which resumed first thing yesterday morning.
Matthew is the son of aviation pioneer and Warbirds Over Wanaka air show founder Sir Tim Wallis and his wife, Lady Wallis. The Transport Accident Investigation Commission is investigating. Yesterday, Jonathan Wallis said he went searching for his brother minutes after satellite stopped tracking his helicopter’s position.
Jonathan was at home when he heard the flight following desk attempting to contact his brother over the radio just after 1pm on Saturday.
He jumped into his helicopter and began searching. About 25 minutes after his brother’s satellite position report stopped tracking, Jonathan found an oil slick in Stephensons Arm in Lake Wanaka.
‘‘I anticipated that he would be swimming in the lake because I found the oil, but it very quickly changed from that . . . and as I started to find debris I realised this was quite serious.’’
As the search heads into his third day, Jonathan said it had been hard on all the family, including Matthew’s 5-year-old son, Arthur, and wife, Alice.
He was a wonderful chap, who was very hard working and a magnificent father to his son, Jonathan said.
His entire focus was on getting his brother home.
He posted a heartfelt Facebook post as the search resumed in Wanaka yesterday.
‘‘I miss you already and will never ever forget you,’’ Jonathan wrote.
He made a promise to care for his brother’s son and wife.
‘‘We were a tight team and it will not be the same without you but I promise we will foster Arthur’s adventurous spirit and take care of Alice,’’ the post said.
The search for his brother in Lake Wanaka was challenging, he said.
Detective Derek Shaw said the Police National Dive Squad resumed the search just after 8.30am yesterday. Conditions were calm on the lake with light showers falling and a temperature of about four degrees.
‘‘It’s cool and calm here and we are hoping for an improving trend over the next few days so we’re going to take that opportunity to do as much as we can.’’
Shaw said the depth of the lake was right at the edge of the divers’ operational limits, so another team would help later on.
Police were confident of recovering Matthew’s body, he said.