Victorian man killed in NZ plane crash
Updated
The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that an 18-year-old man from Victoria is one of the people who died in a plane crash on New Zealand's South Island on Saturday.
The Fletcher fixed-wing aircraft reportedly crashed on take-off and burst into flames at the Fox Glacier airport near the South Island's west coast.
The pilot, four skydiving instructors and three other foreign tourists from Ireland, Germany and the United Kingdom were all killed.
A spokesman from the department says the Australian High Commission in Wellington is working with authorities to assist the Australian man's family.
New Zealand prime minister John Key says it was a bad day for the country's South Island, which also saw a devastating earthquake hit the city of Christchurch on Saturday morning.
"I've only had a very limited message from the minister of civil aviation but obviously our hearts go out to the families," he said.
"The South Island's really bearing the worst of it at the moment and our our hearts go out to, as I say, those family and friends."
The only skydiving company in the area, Skydive New Zealand, would not comment on the tragedy.
However, a message on the company's answering machine said:"Unfortunately, we will not be skydiving for the rest of the day."
Westland District mayor Maureen Pugh told the television channel the tourists were going up with instructors to do a tandem skydive in perfect weather 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."
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 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 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.
Travellers, many of them from abroad, support a burgeoning tourism industry catering for a range of interests, including high-adrenaline sports and trekking.
- ABC/AFP
Topics: air-and-space, accidents, disasters-and-accidents, new-zealand, australia, vic
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