New Zealand chopper crash leaves 7 dead

WELLINGTON: Four tourists from Britain and two from Australia were among seven people killed Saturday when a helicopter crashed on a scenic New Zealand glacier, police said.
An image released by police showed the wreckage wedged between walls of ice in a crevasse on the Fox Glacier. Police said in a statement that the difficult terrain had prevented rescuers from reaching the wreck, but that they believed all six tourists along with the pilot had been killed.
Police said they would try to recover the bodies Sunday. They said that they had been talking with embassy officials to notify relatives, but that formal identification of the bodies could take some time.
The helicopter crashed at about 11 a.m. at the popular tourist destination on New Zealand’s South Island. Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said the weather was marginal at the time of the crash, with intermittent rain showers and low clouds.
“It was not ideal for helicopter flying,” he said.
Kokshoorn said that the region had been experiencing a bumper start to the Southern Hemisphere tourist season, but that bad weather had been putting pressure on some tourist operators.
“It can be a fine line,” he said. “Operators are doing their best to get people up there, but obviously something went badly wrong.”
He said that the glaciers in recent years have been retreating and that the only way to view them up close is by helicopter. He said operators offer different packages, and a basic trip typically involves a 10-minute flight to the top of the glacier, where tourists can walk around for about a half-hour before returning.