Fresh sightings of missing helicopter reported
06 January 2004
Police are appealing for further sightings of a helicopter missing in Fiordland since Saturday with two people aboard as they try to chart its flight path.
Five local helicopters searched unsuccessfully from 6am today for the four-seater Hughes 369HS. The search was to continue until 9pm.
Senior Sergeant Olaf Jensen, of Te Anau police, said that further witnesses had come forward after two trampers yesterday supplied fresh information about where the helicopter was heading.
Hamilton pilot Campbell Montgomerie, 27, and his passenger Hannah Rose Timings, 28, of Cheltenham, England, set off at 7.50am on Saturday from Howden Hut, on the Routeburn Track west of Queenstown, heading for Milford Sound.
The pilot last contacted the Milford control tower just before 9am.
Yesterday rescuers redirected their search after two trampers walking the Greenstone Track in Fiordland reported seeing a helicopter flying south in the Lake McKellar area toward the Livingstone Mountains at 9am.
Last night, another witness told police of seeing the helicopter in the Caples Valley area before 9am – the Caples River joins the Greenstone River before entering Lake Wakatipu's western shore.
Another witness also saw a helicopter between 8am and 9am near Lake Gunn which is next to the Milford-Te Anau Highway.
Mr Jensen said while the sightings were relatively far apart the distance would be short for a helicopter to cover.
"It's a reasonably large area, but in the weather conditions this helicopter could possibly have been flying around trying to find a way to get through."
Mr Jensen said the more sightings that came in the clearer picture searchers would have of Mr Montgomerie's flight path.
He appealed for motorists on the highway and trampers in the Routeburn or Hollyford Valley who saw the forest green helicopter before it disappeared to contact police.
"The more sightings we have the better idea we have of where the helicopter has flown."
Sightings indicated a different area to search than the location given to the Milford Tower.
"He's called in a position. . .but there is an hour between the time he took off until then and with the more sightings we have and timings (of sightings) we'll be able to pinpoint the route he's taken."
source
Autorotate - your thoughts?