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Six tourists and their pilot were killed when their helicopter crashed into a deeply crevassed glacier in New Zealand during bad weather yesterday, 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.
Four tourists from the United Kingdom, two from Australia and a New Zealand pilot were on board the helicopter. Police said they were liaising with embassies to contact next of kin.
"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.
Debris from the wrecked helicopter was spread over several hundred metres, with the main part of the aircraft wedged between house-sized blocks of ice.
The alarm was raised late in the morning when an emergency locator beacon was activated.
The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand sent four helicopters to the glacier, where they found a deep scorch mark leading to the helicopter about 762 metres up the glacier.
A spokesman for Alpine Adventures, which operated the single-engine Squirrel helicopter, confirmed it was on a scenic flight with six passengers.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission said it had sent four investigators to Fox Glacier and would look into the cause of the crash.


Tourist helicopter crashes into New Zealand glacier, killing all 7 on board