Family pays for more helicopters to join search

The family of one of the men on a helicopter missing on a flight from Auckland to Queenstown has put two more search helicopters in the air.

The helicopters left Ardmore in Auckland to join the other two helicopters and a fixed wing aircraft searching between Raglan on the coast south west of Auckland, and Wanganui.

Liquor baron Michael Erceg is believed to own the Eurocopter which left Auckland shortly before 10am yesterday and was last seen on radar south of Raglan about 30 minutes later.

The pilot and the passenger have not been named although the passenger was known to be Dutch.

It was due to refuel at Wanganui and Rangiora on its way to Queenstown.

Rescue Coordination Centre spokeswoman, Heidi Brook, said in addition to the two helicopters and the fixed wing aircraft which began searching at first light, and the two helicopters put up by the family, another helicopter from Palmerston North was fitted with thermal search gear and joined the search.

The thermal equipment would look for heat sources on the anticipated route the missing helicopter would probably have taken.

Ms Brook said the family was very worried.

"They asked us if there was anything they could do so at their own cost they are putting an extra helicopters up. We told them where to search and they are following a line of search from Raglan to Wanganui as well."

She said they were looking for the helicopter or wreckage but could not assume the helicopter had crashed.

The weather south of Raglan was not good.

"There is quite low cloud which makes searching difficult," she said.

She said the search would continue until the helicopter was found.

Ms Brook said it was difficult to know exactly where to look for the aircraft because its exact flight path was not known.

"We are unsure of the exact route.

"It was last seen on radar just south of Raglan Harbour ... at the time it was only at 1100ft (335m)."

She said at that altitude radar might not have picked the helicopter up after that.

She said the helicopter was very low and would probably have flown higher than 335 metres on a trip.

One of the search helicopters began at Raglan and flew south, stopping at farms to see if there were any sightings. The other was heading north from New Plymouth up the coast. The fixed wing aircraft was due to take a direct line from Raglan to Wanganui.

She said the direct route from Raglan to Wanganui was the first option for searchers and then they would look on either side of that.
"It is a little like looking for a needle in a haystack."

The helicopter was fitted with an electronic location transmitter (ELT) which was not activated.

"But I understand that is not unusual. If for example it had crashed, sometimes the ELT might not have worked."

The maroon coloured helicopter had the letters HTF on its side.

- NZPA