5 Americans among 7 dead in Peru chopper crash

Investigators picked through the wreckage Tuesday of a heavily loaded U.S.-owned cargo helicopter that crashed in the Peruvian jungle shortly after takeoff, killing its five American and two Peruvian crew members.

The tandem-rotor Chinook BH-234 chopper, owned by Columbia Helicopters, Inc. of the Portland suburb of Aurora, Oregon, crashed Monday near the provincial capital of Pucallpa.

It was under contract for petroleum exploration support, en route to a drilling location in northern Peru, said Todd Peterson, the company's vice president of marketing.

Michael Fahey, the company president, told a news conference in Oregon the aircraft it was carrying a sling load, an external cargo secured by cables. He did not specify the cargo.

Witnesses quoted in local media reports said the chopper lost control and spewed smoke before crashing.

The Pucallpa airport control tower had its last contact with the aircraft at 3:03 p.m., five minutes after takeoff, Peru's civil aviation authority reported, and controllers saw "a big cloud of smoke" four miles northeast of the airport.

A local police commander, Miguel Cardoso, told The Associated Press that three bodies were recovered Monday and three more on Tuesday, from inside the chopper's charred wreckage. He said the three taken to the morgue Monday apparently had jumped from the chopper, as witnesses reported.

"They have different trauma. It appears they jumped out of the helicopter out of desperation, because they have multiple fractures," Cardoso said by phone.

The five dead Americans, all but one U.S.-based, were identified by their employer as Dann Immel, command pilot, of Gig Harbor, Washington, Edwin Cordova, maintenance crew chief, of Melbourne, Florida, Jaime Pickett, mechanic, of Clarksville, Tennessee, Darrel Birkes, senior load manager, an Oregonian living in Peru, and Leon Bradford, a load manager from Santaquin, Utah.

The two Peruvians were co-pilot Igor Castillo and mechanic Luis Ramos, the company said in a release.

Company officials said they had no immediate information on what might have caused the crash. They said a senior management team was headed to Peru to assist local authorities in the investigation.

Peterson denied reports in local media suggesting the aircraft might have been overloaded.

"I can say categorically that the aircraft was not overloaded," he said, adding that the load list was destroyed in the crash but company officials had a good idea of what was on board and believe the Chinook, combined with its load, weighed about 47,000 pounds.

That would be 4,000 pounds less than its maximum gross limit. The helicopter weighs 21,000 pounds empty, Peterson said.

The aircraft's cargo Monday included an external load of rigging, attached on a platform that hung beneath it on cables, "a very standard operation," said Peterson

The helicopter was contracted by Canada-based Talisman Energy Inc. but could also have been subcontracted.

A spokeswoman for Talisman, Veronica Bonifaz, said the chopper was not transporting cargo or personnel for it at the time of the crash.

She said she had no more information.

Columbia Helicopters has been in business for 55 years, principally in the United States, and Peter Lance, the company's executive vice president, said it has been operating in Peru for more than a decade, primarily contracted to companies, like Talisman, engaged in oil and gas exploration.

The Chinook that crashed was one of two helicopters Columbia has in Peru.

Lance, who said he has been with Columbia Helicopters for 33 years, said it has been at least a decade since a company aircraft crashed.

Its last fatal crash occurred in Canada in 1997 when a Boeing BV-234 engaged in heli-logging operations on Vancouver Island crashed, killing both pilots aboard. Canadian authorities blamed an electrical overload.

According to U.S. National Transportation Safety Board records, in October 1996 a Columbia Helicopters Boeing BV-107 lost control during a maintenance check flight and crashed three miles from the Aurora, Oregon airport, killing both pilots and the onboard mechanic. The NTSB listed a maintenance failure as the probable cause.

In addition to petroleum exploration, Columbia Helicopters provides services to industries including logging, construction and fighting wildfires, according to its website.

It bills itself as "the only operator of the commercial models of the CH-47 Chinook and H-46 Sea Knight helicopters."

Thursday 10 January 2013

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/20547659/middle-tennessee-man-killed-in-peru-chopper-crash

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Hopes rise for death-free bushfires

Police remain hopeful no one has died in the fire-ravaged communities being searched for human remains.

More than 730 properties have been searched during the past few days and so far there has been no evidence of death amid the blackened rubble at Murdunna and Dunalley.

Victoria Police has now joined the painstaking effort, with a contingent of interstate officers arriving in Tasmania yesterday.

Of the 730 homes already searched, 126 have been destroyed by Friday's ferocious blaze.

Police are slowly working their way through properties from Murdunna, to Dunalley, Boomer Bay, Dodges Ferry, Forcett and Primrose Sands where houses were lost.

Acting Police Commissioner Scott Tilyard said police were collecting data generated from the ground search teams and collating it with information collected from other agencies including the SES in an effort to locate people as quickly as possible.

Rumours of bodies being found continue to circulate widely through the social media grapevine.

"Its important to note that at this stage, police have no official missing persons reports," Mr Tilyard said.

He said so far 2200 people had been identified as safe and well and there was no cause for police to have grave concerns for the welfare of anyone at this stage.

Those who have left the Tasman Peninsula without registering their details are being reminded to do so immediately to save police time.

Tasmania Police is using software developed by Victoria Police after the Black Saturday disaster.

"We are working with the Red Cross to cross-reference the details with information received from numerous sources that individuals are OK," Mr Tilyard said.

Mr Tilyard reminds property owners and residents of the affected areas -- who remain banned from returning home at this stage -- that police are doing everything they can to make that possible.

Hundreds of locals and tourist evacuees trapped on the peninsula by the closure of the Arthur Highway on Friday were escorted through the road blocks in special convoys on Tuesday night.

The convoy was forced to take a detour along Sugarloaf Rd after coming across a fallen tree on the Arthur Highway.

Essential supplies have been taken in to the area this morning with the highway remaining closed until further notice.

Buses were organised last night so people could return to collect vehicles, many of them hire cars, left behind when they departed by ferry.

Thursday 10 January 2013

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/01/10/370049_tasmania-news.html

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The victims of the 2011 floods who might never be buried

Christopher Face's mobile phone goes straight to voicemail now. It probably rests with his body, but no one knows where.

The 63-year-old was never found after his Grantham house "imploded" under the pressure of the floodwater that tore through the Lockyer Valley on January 10, 2011.

The great-grandfather is one of three victims - along with James Perry and Dawn Radke - whose loved ones have not been able to bury them.

Within days of the disaster, authorities warned traumatised families that their loved ones might be lost forever, and in June last year state coroner Michael Barnes confirmed their fears, declaring the final three missing persons officially dead.

The eldest was Mr Face, who was at his Anzac Ave home with partner Brenda Ross, 56, and her son Josh Ross, 25, when the wall of water hit.

Mrs Ross had limited mobility and Mr Face, who was also her carer, stayed with her as their house filled with water and the walls started to shake.

The bodies of Mrs Ross and her son were later recovered.

Adam Face, 40, said he and his three siblings - Karen, Amanda and Simon - would not find peace until their father was found.

"I still wait for the call to say that they've found him," he said. "There's always hope. He has to be somewhere.

"I went and saw psychics and they said that he's not where they expect him to be, that he's a bit further down."

Simon, 38, said the tragedy still felt surreal.

"It's not something you think could happen, especially when we spoke to him on New Year's Eve (2010) and everything was fine," he said.

"When you pass away like that you can't be too much at peace, especially if you're laying in a paddock somewhere three feet under mud, but we can only hope he's at peace.

"If we could find him and his remains and put an end to it all it would make things a whole lot better."

For the family of James Perry, their pain remains too raw to discuss.

The 39-year-old racing steward spent his final minutes trying to save his wife Jenny Thorncraft and their nine-year-old son Teddy after their car was engulfed in floodwaters on the Warrego Highway at Helidon.

Their terrifying situation, as the family climbed on to the roof of their station wagon before being forced to jump into floodwaters as it neared downed power lines, was captured on film by a helicopter.

Mr Perry, who vanished in the raging torrent, had put their son on top of a blue feed bin while his wife clung to a tree for several hours before she was rescued.

Mr Perry's father Kingsley, a Sydney-based watercolour artist, said losing - and being unable to bury - their son was "very difficult".

"We're fine. We're all right. But it has been difficult," he said.

Warren Thorncraft said his sister and nephew were overseas but doing "pretty well".

Mrs Thorncraft took Teddy to Laos in South-East Asia, where another brother lives, in the wake of the flood.

In another heart-wrenching loss, grandmother Dawn Radke, 56, died - along with Pauline Magner, 65, and their 23-month-old granddaughter Jessica Lily-Ann Keep - after floodwaters rushed through the low-set Grantham house of her daughter Stacy and son-in-law Matthew Keep.

The bodies of Mrs Magner and Jessica were later found, but Mrs Radke, who was last seen hanging on to a lawnmower, has not been found.

The Keeps, who have moved to a new property in Grantham, could not be contacted.

Member for Lockyer Ian Rickuss said those affected just wanted "to get over it personally".

"And I'm a little bit that way too," he said.

"It was terrible and that sort of thing, but really it's two years now.

"There will be a small memorial (today) for people who want to go down to Murphys Creek and say their piece, but it won't be a public thing."

Thursday 10 January 2013

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/the-victims-of-the-2011-floods-who-might-never-be-buried/story-fndo2iwh-1226551374355

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Most victims of Lamma IV not wearing life vests, inquiry told

At least 28 out of the 39 victims who died in a sea collision off Lamma Island were not wearing life jackets, while four others were merely holding flotation vests in their hands, a commission of inquiry into the National Day disaster heard yesterday.

The conditions of the remaining seven at the time their bodies were salvaged could not be ascertained, Fire Services Department data showed yesterday.



Survivors from Hongkong Electric launch Lamma IV, which collided with public ferry Sea Smooth on the night of October 1, had complained of difficulties in retrieving life vests on board and little time to put them on.

Deputy chief fire officer Yau Wai-keung, who commanded the rescue operation, testified that he declared the collision a level-one multiple-casualty incident 39 minutes after the crash, and upgraded it to level two 20 minutes later.

"When we arrived at the scene, we were aware that there would be more casualties," Yau said. "So we elevated our preparation and strategy with other departments."

The 39 dead comprised 23 women, eight men, five girls and three boys.

Over the five-day operation, the fire department mobilised more than 600 officers and, together with police and other rescuers, saved more than 80 lives. Its divers conducted 50 dives and retrieved 24 bodies in the first 12 dives, the inquiry heard. The rest were recovered by other rescuers.

According to the data, 23 bodies were salvaged from the upper deck of Lamma IV and five from the main deck. Seven were found floating in the water and three were on life rafts. Only the location of one body could not be determined.

The department got its first emergency call at 8.23pm, three minutes after the crash, Yau said.

Fireman Wong Tsz-kiu, who was on the first fireboat that arrived at 8.41pm, recalled that a woman was clinging on to a handrail at the starboard side of Lamma IV, with her feet close to the water. At that time, the bow was already listing 90 degrees to the sea. Wong threw a lifebuoy repeatedly and saved her, he said.

After that, he saw a group in the upper deck hit the windows for help. He broke in and freed more than a dozen people.

He then saw three unconscious victims float in the upper-deck cabin. He pushed two of them out but was briefly trapped inside with a girl due to strong waves. After he got out, he performed resuscitation on her.

Wong later learned the girl was Tsui Hoi-ying, 10, who died of multiple organ failure from drowning and injuries after four days in hospital. Her father Tsui Chi-wai, 42, also died.

The hearing continues today.

Thursday 10 January 2013

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1124998/most-victims-lamma-iv-not-wearing-life-vests-inquiry-told

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