Fox Glacier helicopter crash: Three bodies recovered

POST-MORTEMS have been completed on the bodies of three women and a man recovered from the scene of the Fox Glacier helicopter crash.

“They were very adventurous when it came to travel and this holiday was to be their last big adventure together”, the family said.

Neighbours of retired dentist Mr Charlton and his wife in the village of Dunbridge, near Romsey in Hampshire, spoke of their sadness.

Inspector John Canning said conditions were not expected to clear until Wednesday.

The crash investigation has invited participants from Britain and Australia, as well as France and the United States, where the aircraft and engine were made.

“We are still working on the identifications in a formal way”, he said.

The victims have been named as Australians Leang Sovannmony, 27, and Josephine Gibson, 29; Britons Andrew Virco, 50, Katharine Walker, 51, Nigel Edwin Charlton, 66, and Cynthia Charlton, 70; and Kiwi pilot Mitchell Paul Gameren, 28.

The 13-kilometre-long Fox Glacier, on the west coast of the South Island, is listed as one of the world’s most accessible glaciers and attracts thousands of tourists each year. However, media sources say flying was not deemed risky at the time; several other pilots took off and landed safely with groups of tourists on the same day.

She said that Mr Charlton was a “big fan” of trains who had built a signal box in their garden, which backed on to a railway line.

Ms Walker was head of radiotherapy at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

A paramedic and alpine rescue team who looked over the crash site confirmed there were no survivors. “The pilot was a very valued member of our team”, The Guardian reports.

A photograph released by New Zealand police shows the remains of the helicopter embedded in the crevasse at Fox Glacier following a crash killing all seven on board.

Aoraki-Mt Cook Alpine Rescue, South Westland Alpine Cliff Rescue Team and Police victim identification teams are ready to deploy to the glacier as soon as the weather allows.

There was another aviation crash in the area in September 2010, when nine people died after a skydiving plane plunged to the ground then burst into flames shortly after takeoff.