Helicopter crashes on glacier in New Zealand

Four English and two Australian tourists as well as their New Zealand pilot died when the helicopter plunged into the heavily crevassed glacier during bad weather on Saturday.

New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission said it would investigate the cause of the crash and had sent four investigators to Fox Glacier.

Police said none of the seven people on board survived the incident on Fox Glacier, which took place late at about 11am local time (10pm Friday United Kingdom time).

UPDATE 3: The rescue team is now in contact with the British and Australian embassies reaching out to help find the kin of the deceased to inform and update them of the situation.

Fox Glacier is 13 kilometres (eight miles) long and is listed as one of the most accessible glaciers in the world.

We hope to get up there and recover the bodies as soon as we can.

It is believed Nigel and Cynthia Charlton, both from Hampshire, were on board the aircraft when it went down at Fox Glacier off the South Island.

“Our family and loved ones are feeling a huge loss and grief at this time, and we share in the pain of the families affected by this shocking accident”, it says. Police said the recovery operation and investigation was likely to take days. When asked what was the priority between recovering the bodies of the victims or the wreckage, Inspector Canning said “quite clearly the bodies”.

The body recovery operation meant that the air crash investigators had to do their initial survey of the wreckage using stills and video cameras from the air.

A statement indicated the pilot was a 28-year-old from Queenstown, New Zealand.

Rescue teams reached the scene Saturday afternoon, but said crevasses and rugged terrain were hampering their efforts. “It was not ideal for helicopter flying”, he said.

Helicopter flights are a popular way to see glaciers and alpine regions on New Zealand’s South Island.

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said the weather was bare at the period of the crash, with low clouds and occasional rain showers.

In an emotional tribute on Facebook, his sister Brooke said: ‘Today we lost a champion.

Nine people died in 2010 when a skydiving plane crashed near exactly the same glacier.