Police name seven victims of Fox Glacier helicopter crash

The first crews have begun their attempt to recover the bodies of the seven people involved in yesterday’s fatal helicopter crash at Fox Glacier on New Zealand’s South Island.

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.

The downed chopper was reported missing shortly before 11am, when Alpine Adventures alerted the Rescue Co-ordination Centre the Squirrel’s emergency locator beacon had been activated.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) hopes one of its investigators will get to the scene on Sunday morning, weather permitting.

“We are providing consular assistance to their families at this hard time”. “I’m not going to risk any more lives, we’ve lost seven”.

In a statement on Saturday night, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said she had spoken to the families of the two Australians believed to be on board.

“My sympathies are with the families of the crash victims at this very distressing time”, she said.

The helicopter was located in a crevasse of the glacier but rescuers were initially unable to reach the site due to the hard terrain. He said that break came just before midday, allowing multiple helicopter flights.

Nine people – five New Zealanders and tourists from Australia, England, Ireland and Germany died – when a skydiving plane crashed shortly after take-off at Fox Glacier airport in 2010.

Police inspector John Canning said the recovery operation would resume when conditions improved, but the immediate forecast was not good.

The glacier’s in a remote location, and recovery of the bodies could take a number of days, police said.

Glacier Country Tourism chairman Rob Jewell confirmed that the no fly zone around the crash site had been extended and that no helicopter companies would run tours today in order to give the recovery helicopters priority.

Images of the wreckage in a crevasse on the glacier in the west of the nation’s South Island have been released by police.