UP DATE Rescue Chopper
Chopper crashes off Mackay, 2 dead
October 18, 2003
2 RESCUE workeras are dead and one other is missing after a helicopter on a medical evacuation flight crashed into the ocean off the Queensland coast overnight.
Australian Search and Rescue was notified just after 10.30pm (AEST) last night that the helicopter carrying three men on a 30-minute flight from Mackay to Hamilton Island failed to arrive to collect a man with a broken leg.
Air Services Australia say contact was lost with the helicopter 28km north of Mackay.
A Hamilton Island based rescue helicopter was sent to find the chopper, a Bell 407, and with the aid of a spotlight found it upturned just under the surface of the water.
The body of a man aged in his 30s was found floating in the water near the wreckage. a second body has been recovered
Another helicopter with an infrared camera searched for the other two rescue personnel - also men aged in their 30s - while a fixed-wing aircraft searched above the site.