Two helicopters collided in mid-air near a popular tourist attraction in Australia’s Gold Coast region on Monday, killing four people and critically injuring three more, authorities said.
Emergency services were called to the scene near the Sea World theme park at about 2 p.m. local time, Gary Worrell, acting inspector at the Queensland police, told a news briefing.
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Worrell said the two aircraft crash-landed after the collision. “As a result of that, four people have lost their lives today.”
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it had launched an investigation into the accident.
A British couple were among four killed in a mid-air collision that left two mangled helicopters on a sandbank near an Australian tourist hotspot, investigators said on Tuesday. One helicopter was taking off for a “tourist joy flight” along Queensland’s scenic Gold Coast when its rotor blades smashed into the cockpit of another helicopter coming in to land, air safety commissioner Angus Mitchell said. “In the process of that collision the main rotor blades and gearbox of the helicopter taking off have separated from the aircraft, causing it to tragically crash down on to a sandbar,” he told reporters.
Story via Reuters, ENCA News
Image via CTV News
