Dead chopper pilot honoured

Kiwi chopper pilot Kevin Holmes. Photo / Supplied

A Kiwi search and rescue helicopter pilot who was killed in a training operation in Spain is to be awarded one of that country's highest honours.

Kevin Holmes, 43, will be posthumously awarded the Gold Medal for Civil Protection this week in recognition of his heroic work with the Spanish maritime rescue service.

He was killed with two colleagues when their Helimar 207 chopper plunged into the sea off the coast of Almeria, in southern Spain.

A Spanish navy team using a remote-controlled submarine recovered Holmes' body from the helicopter 85m beneath the ocean surface. The helicopter had been on a routine night training operation, and the cause of the accident remains unclear.

Holmes is survived by his wife Vera, a businesswoman from Madrid.

A former boss last night paid an emotional tribute to Holmes, who had been living in Spain for the past 10 years.

Francisco Guerrero García, chief of the S&R base in Almeria, where Holmes died, said:

"We are completely devastated. But we owe it to the memory of our colleagues to carry on doing the best we can as a rescue service. That's what they would have wanted.

"Kevin has not left, he is still with us, to help us keep doing what he liked best.

"We spent many times - good and bad - with Kevin. We enjoyed his great Kiwi sense of humour and the way he put up with our Spanish jokes. He was also a brilliant chef and we spent many hours on duty together at the airport."

Holmes was cremated in a private service on Wednesday in his home town of Almunecar.

The team's group commander Jose Lopez Alcala, and rescuer Inigo Vallejo Garcia, also died in the crash. A fourth crew member Alberto Elvira was rescued immediately after the accident and survived.

The crash has hit the close-knit community in Almeria hard. The search and rescue service said it had been inundated with hundreds of calls of support.