Survival on 'inhospitable' Auckland Islands after helicopter crash is 'remarkable'

Tuesday, 23 April 2019

The three men who survived a helicopter crash near Auckland Islands 'would have been concentrating on getting ashore and staying alive'.

The survival of three men who were found alive after a helicopter crash near the Auckland Islands has been called 'remarkable' by a local tour operator.

The remote subantarctic islands - located 465 kilometres south of Bluff - are known to experience harsh weather, especially at this time of year, Aaron Russ said.

Russ, who is an expedition leader and director at Heritage Expeditions added that there is no infrastructure or wharf on the island.

The three men who crashed near Auckland Islands were taken to hospital, after rescue teams located them on Tuesday morning.

'[It's] pretty remarkable that they've been able to [survive],' he told Stuff.

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The island is only visited by researchers and those who are fully self-contained.

With no infrastructure or wharf, the Auckland Islands are only visited by researchers and those who are fully self-contained.

'Generally, visitation to the island is on the premise that you're fully self-sufficient because it has very restricted and limited facilities.

'The Southern Ocean is probably the best way of describing it. The Auckland Islands are a speck of land in a vast ocean … the wind when it's blowing [just] whips through,' said Russ.

Having lived down in the subantarctic islands in the winter months, Russ said the weather conditions the men would have experienced are very similar to that in the peak of winter.

'The weather at this time will be getting quite cool … winds will be moving quite quickly through the area. I imagine they had a pretty rough night.'

The Auckland Islands have a topography similar to that of the Banks Peninsula and Otago Peninsula, and some of the islands in the archipelago are 'low rocky' and 'exposed to the elements'.

'The guys would have been concentrating on getting ashore and staying alive more than anything,' he told Stuff.

Visitation to the island is limited to those with a permit, but at this time of the year the waters near the island are frequented by fishing boats.

Heritage Expedition have aided in searches before, due to their knowledge of the area, however, their ships are currently positioned further north.

'We've been involved in a number of searches because we have the ship regularly in the southern ocean, in those waters.'

Russ explained that 'if the ship had been in the south' it would have joined the search for the men following the crash.

The helicopter was heading to a private medical evacuation when it was reported missing at 8.15pm on Monday. Rescue crews found the helicopter wreckage near the islands on Tuesday, but no bodies were recovered.

The trio were found on Auckland Islands, which is the main island of the collection, before being flown over to nearby Enderby Island.

Described as 'one of the jewels in the crown of New Zealand's conservation', Auckland Islands - part of the 500,000 ha Motu Maha Marine Reserve - are a hot spot for wildlife, including seals, sea lions and diverse range of birds.