Tourist Helicopter Crash Kills Four

Tourist / Sightseeing chopper crash kills in Australia. Four people – three of them believed to be tourists – are dead after a helicopter crashed in the Bungle Bungle ranges in Western Australia’s remote Kimberley region. The 40-year-old pilot and three women – one thought to be aged 19 and the other two 20 – were killed when the helicopter went down during a scenic flight to the Purnululu National Park yesterday afternoon. The helicopter burst into flames when it crashed 10km from the Bellburn air strip in the national park, near the Argyle diamond mine.  The crash sparked a bushfire that built into a blaze with a 1km-long front.  Bellburn airstrip, where the helicopter went down, is a bush camp in the park about 55km by air from the township of Warnum, which is also known as Turkey Creek.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is investigating this tragic helicopter crash. This crash comes seven months after two people died when a light plane collided with a helicopter over Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. The collision occurred as the two aircraft were conducting a feral goat culling program in the Kennedy Range National Park, 170km east of Carnarvon.