Nine people, including four foreigners, were killed when a skydiving plane crashed and burst into flames at a popular New Zealand tourist spot yesterday, officials said.
The plane went down near the airstrip at Fox Glacier, a central attraction in the UNESCO-designated World Heritage area on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island.
“All nine people on board were killed,” a police spokesman said.
PHOTO: AFP
He listed the dead as the pilot, four New Zealand males and tourists from Ireland, England, Australia and Germany without detailing their ages or gender.
Initial details of the tragedy were unclear because of the remoteness of the area, but the police spokesman said he understood the plane burst into flames after it crashed.
New Zealand Transport Minister Stephen Joyce said the Skydive New Zealand crash was the country’s first aviation accident of this magnitude since an Air Adventures chartered Piper Navajo Chieftain crashed on landing near Christchurch in 2003, killing eight people.
“Details remain sketchy and it is too soon to speculate on exactly what has led to this accident,” he said, adding that the crash was being investigated.
An Australian official said an 18-year-old man from the southeastern state of Victoria was among those who died when the Fletcher FU-24 turbine powered plane crashed.
“The skydiving aircraft crashed while trying to take off, killing the pilot, four skydiving instructors and three other foreign tourists,” a spokesman for the New Zealand Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Skydive New Zealand, the only skydiving company in the area, made no immediate comment on the tragedy.
However, a message on the company’s answerphone said: “Unfortunately, we will not be skydiving for the rest of the day.”
Westland District mayor Maureen Pugh told Television New Zealand the tourists were going up with instructors to do a tandem skydive in perfect conditions.
“It’s a well-established company down here and has a huge reputation,” she said.
“Nobody is even trying to guess what went wrong, but it had tragic consequences. We’re just so devastated,” Pugh added.
The five New Zealanders on board were all locals and well-known in the tight-knit Fox community with a population of fewer than 300 people.
A spokesman at the Fox Glacier Inn motel said everyone in the town had been to the airstrip trying to help where they could.
“It’s a small town and everyone knows everyone,” he said.
Police said the ill-fated aircraft was a Fletcher fixed-wing, the type operated by Skydive New Zealand, which has been involved in the skydiving and aviation industry for more than 25 years.
The disaster was the worst air tragedy in New Zealand in nearly 17 years. Nine people also died in a plane crash in October 1993 at nearby Franz Josef Glacier.
The following year, seven people were killed when a sightseeing helicopter crashed near Fox Glacier.
The west coast of New Zealand’s South Island attracts thousands of tourists annually, brought to the area by the stunning mountain scenery and fjords.
Travelers, many of them from abroad, support a burgeoning tourism industry catering for a range of interests, including high-adrenaline sports and trekking.
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