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2 feared dead as rescue helicopter crashes

A Government Flying Service rescue helicopter, carrying a pilot and crewman, crashed into the side of a hill on Lantau after going missing late last night.

A government spokesman said the wreckage of the helicopter had been spotted early today 300 metres up Fung Wong Shan and rescuers were trying to reach the site.

The fate of the two crewmen was not immediately known.

A massive air, sea and land search was launched after the Eurocopter EC155 B1 lost contact with its control centre at 10.41pm, soon after taking off from Chek Lap Kok airport.

The $79 million helicopter was on a rescue mission to airlift three patients from Cheung Chau when the pilot lost contact over Tung Chung, the government spokesman said.

Both the police and fire service were asked to join the search at 11.30pm when GFS efforts to contact the pilot failed.

Two helicopters, four boats, mountain rescuers and police were involved in the search.

An officer at the GFS control base would not speculate on the cause of the crash. 'We don't know what happened to the helicopter. We lost contract when it was flying over Tung Chung after it took off from Chek Lap Kok air base.'

The state-of-the-art helicopter was one of five the GFS bought at the end of last year. The aircraft feature advanced night-vision equipment.

The officer refused to say whether the crashed helicopter was the one whose cabin door fell off as it flew over Victoria Harbour early this month.

'All I'm willing to say is that it's the same type,' he said.

The sliding door fell off as the chopper climbed from the Central helipad after delivering a hospital patient from an outlying island.

No one was hurt but the door landed in the water 20 metres from the Kowloon entrance of the Western Harbour Tunnel.

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