Six tourists and their pilot were killed when their helicopter crashed into a heavily crevassed glacier in New Zealand during bad weather on Saturday, police said. The sightseeing helicopter plunged into the Fox Glacier, a popular tourist site on the west coast of the South Island, with weather conditions reported to be heavily overcast and raining at the time.
A paramedic and alpine rescue team who looked over the crash site confirmed there were no survivors. "A helicopter carrying seven people including the pilot has crashed at the top of the Fox Glacier," inspector John Canning said. "We have been to the site and there is no sign of life and tomorrow we hope to recover the bodies of those involved."
Canning said the recovery effort could take time because of the atrocious weather. "I'm not going to risk any more lives, we've lost seven," he said. "The terrain at the top of the glacier is very rough, as you can imagine it's icy and there are crevasses - it's quite dangerous." Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn described weather conditions around the glacier at the time of the accident as "terrible" with heavy rain and poor visibility. "It wouldn't be a good day to be flying helicopters," he said.