Seriously doubt it, newbie to the industry, first helo from what I understand, but may be wrong. Choppy was telling me that he took off from ZQN early yesterday morning in very very ****ty weather heading for Milford. Couldnt get there so landed at one of the mountain huts, which technically is a no no, but it kept them safe. He was with some blond girl when he left ZQN.
Then last contact was with Milford Tower at approx 8.10 this morning when he said he was IMC, approx 9 miles from Milford but didnt know which direction on a heading of I think either 172 or 272. He was using a hand held GPS and the machine was an old 369HS so I doubt it had anything fancy in it.
That was the last communications heard. Choppy said weather today was absolute crap and supposed to be the same tomorrow as well. By 10.10 he would have been out of fuel. The problem was if he was at 8500 ft the mountains all around him are up to 9500ft and the tower had cloud down nearly to the water.
Our prayers are with CM but the outcome is not looking great.
Autorotate.
Search For Chopper HIts Bad Weather
03/01/2004 06:22 PM
NewstalkZB
Thick cloud and strong westerlies are hampering the search for a missing helicopter.
Last radio contact with the Hughes chopper with two people on board was just before nine o'clock on Saturday morning.
At that point they were travelling to Milford Sound for extra fuel after spending the night at a hut on the Routeburn Track.
Four helicopters are searching all the possible routes they could have taken.