Auckland Islands helicopter crash: Survivors swam to shore in darkness after Southern Ocean crash

Tuesday, 23 April 2019

Three men rescued from crashed helicopter walk into Invercargill airport

Moments after their helicopter crashed into the freezing cold Southern Ocean, a pilot and medic rescued their unconscious crewmate from of the wreckage in the pitch-black darkness and swam to safety.

Andrew Hefford and John Lambeth were sitting at the front of the helicopter, with winchman Lester Stevens the lone passenger in the back, when it plunged into the ocean on Monday evening, about two minutes out from landing on Enderby Island, just north of the Auckland Islands.

It is understood pilot Andrew Hefford, pictured on the frozen Ross Sea in Antarctica in 2017, was in a helicopter that crashed near Auckland Islands.

Miraculously, all three survived the impact. But their ordeal was far from over.

The subantarctic islands – located 465 kilometres south of Bluff – are considered inhospitable and are known to experience harsh weather.

Southern Lakes Helicopter staff, from left, Sir Richard Hayes, Lloyd Matheson, Snow Mullally and Andrew Hefford. (File photo)

The helicopter was heading to the Auckland Islands, south of New Zealand.

* Hayes calls for calm over rescue helicopter tender

* Sea search for missing man moves to recovery operation**

Andrew Hefford in his helicopter on the frozen Ross Sea in Antarctica in 2017.

Southern Lakes Helicopters operations manager Lloyd Matheson told The Press the crash impact caused Stevens to lose consciousness, with the other two needing to free him from the wrecked machine.

'The three made it to shore some distance in the dark, no navigation lights on the island, nothing, just complete blackness. It was an incredible job to survive,' he said.

The Auckland Islands nature reserve sign on Enderby Island.

'Good team effort between the three, they managed to get to shore and are around to tell the tale.'

Stevens' father, John Stevens, said he received a call early yesterday morning from his daughter-in-law, saying that the helicopter was missing.

A Royal New Zealand AIr Force P-3K2 Orion helped the Rescue Co-ordination Centre and fishing boats find the wreckage (file photo).

'Helicopters crash from time to time, and it's quite often that people don't survive them, so you can imagine that I was very concerned,' he said.

'They were well equipped to withstand any emergency. [Lester] is resourceful, if anyone was going to survive, he would survive.'

About five to six hours later he received a call to say the three men were alive.

'I don't believe in miracles,' Stevens said.

'They survived because they had the right gear and they were resourceful and lots of survival skills, that's what saved them.'

Matheson said they received a call about a sick seaman on an ocean going fish trawler that needed to be extracted at the earliest opportunity on Monday morning.

A lot of planning went into deciding how to best help with getting the seaman, he said.

It was decided with the way the weather patterns were in the ocean that the best option was to position the aircraft on to the end of the island and stay the night in a Department of Conservation hut to allow the vessel to get close to the island in the morning once the front had passed.

The aircraft was about two minutes away from landing at Enderby Island when communications with those on board ceased. The last point of radio contact was at 7.37pm near Yule Island at the northern end of the subantarctic Auckland Islands.

'We couldn't explain why that happened so immediately a full blown search and rescue operation was effected.'

The Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) started the search along with support from the New Zealand Air Force sending a P-3K2 Orion aircraft to assist, with five fishing company vessels in the vicinity of the islands looking near the last known site.

However, the weather deteriorated over the night with diminishing visibility, with nothing found.

The front passed overnight, with four helicopters looking for the men. About 11.45am the men were found by experienced pilot and search and rescue expert Sir Richard 'Hannibal' Hayes, 'waving frantically' wearing immersion suits on a beach on the north east corner of the island, Matheson said.

'We were hoping for the best, expecting the worst. When the rescue centre rang to say there's three guys safe on the beach, there was a huge roar that went around the office here.'

Matheson was yet to speak to the men, but understood they were 'walking wounded'.

'I can only assume they were ecstatic like we were, it's a huge feat of survival.'

He said the support the company had received in the last 24 hours had been 'huge', with Air New Zealand offering to fly families of the survivors to support them.

'It's been a long 24 hours but we've got there,' he said.

'It's one of those days I don't want to repeat in my lifetime.'

It was too early to say what caused the crash, Matheson said.

Stevens said the family was 'grateful' for all the people who searched for the group.

'I wouldn't have expected anything else. That's what they do – helicopter people stick together and they would be out in force looking.'

Heritage Expeditions expedition leader and director Aaron Russ said there was no infrastructure or wharf on the island.

'[It's] pretty remarkable that they've been able to [survive].'

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

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

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.'