Four Britons killed as helicopter crashes on New Zealand glacier
FOUR British sightseers died when their helicopter crashed into a glacier in New Zealand yesterday.
Rescue services said last night it could take days to retrieve their bodies because of the difficult terrain around the site.
Along with the British victims were two Australian passengers and the pilot, 28-year-old Mitch Gameren.
The alarm was raised when an emergency locator beacon on the helicopter was activated. Four rescue helicopters were sent to the scene at Fox glacier on South Island. They found a deep scorch mark leading to the wrecked aircraft, which was wedged in a crevasse.
An image released by police showed the wreckage between massive walls of ice, with the helicopter blades looking intact.
Police said the recovery operation may take days. Inspector John Canning said: ‘We have been to the site and there is no sign of life. It’s at the top of the glacier and heavily crevassed. It’s going to take a lot of care to get the people out of there. It’s quite dangerous.
‘I’m not going to risk any more lives. We’ve lost seven already.’
The Fox glacier is a popular tourist site, with operators offering a basic trip involving a ten-minute flight to the top of the glacier, where holidaymakers can then walk around before returning.
A spokesman for Alpine Adventures, which operated the singleengined Squirrel helicopter, said: ‘We are comforting family, friends and staff at this difficult time.’ Local mayor Tony Kokshoorn said the weather was ‘marginal’ at the time of the crash, with intermittent rain showers and low clouds.
He said: ‘It can be a fine line. Operators do their best to get people up there, but obviously something went badly wrong.’
Mr Gameren was an experienced pilot with 3,000 hours of flying experience.
In an emotional tribute on Facebook, his sister Brooke said: ‘Today we lost a champion. I lost my brother and my best mate.’