Tourists watched bus friends die

Four traumatised overseas tourists who were booked to go on the skydive immediately after the fatal flight that claimed the lives of nine people at Fox Glacier on Saturday, have cut short their New Zealand holiday.
The bodies of the nine dead — five seasonal locals, including one Greymouth man, and four tourists all under the age of 30 — were transferred from the crash site near the end of the Fox Glacier airstrip last night for post-mortems in Auckland.
The victims were Skydive NZ director Rod Miller, 55, of Greymouth, pilot Chaminda Senadhira, 33, of Queenstown, and dive masters Adam Bennett, 47, of Australia but living in Moteuka, Michael Suter, 32, of New Plymouth, Christopher McDonald, 62, of Mapua. The four tourists who died were Patrick Byrne, 26, of Ireland; Glen Bourke, 18, of Victoria, Australia; Annita Kirsten, 23, of Germany; and Brad Coker, 24, of England.
The dead tourists and four companions off a Kiwi Experience bus, had travelled from Franz Josef Glacier for the skydive on Saturday. They split into two groups — those on the ill-fated 1.15pm flight, and those who watched in horror, detective constable Jackie Adams, of Greymouth police CIB, said today.
“Four of them knew each other so they decided they would go together as the second group.”
They watched the whole thing unfold, Mr Adams said. They were “completely devastated” by the experience and were due to leave New Zealand today.
Families of those killed have now arrived in the township, where a memorial for the victims was held yesterday.
Exactly what caused the Fletcher FU24 plane to crash and burn immediately after take-off is unknown and could take months to determine.
The company has a perfect safety record with more than 35,000 successful jumps.
Mr Adams said a number of witnesses spoken to so far said they thought the plane had stalled midair. The plane was believed to have reached about 60m before crashing.
Witnesses had given conflicting accounts of the crash, some saying the plane had nosedived into the paddock near the end of the grass runway, while others said it had fallen flat.
“We still do not know how it impacted yet, but what we do know is that it caught fire in about two seconds.”
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission team, Civil Aviation Authority, police Serious Crash Unit and CIB were all poring over the wreckage, and interviewing witnesses today.
It was the worst air crash in New Zealand for nearly 17 years.
Fox Glacier chief fire officer John Sullivan and his family watched fearfully as the plane headed straight for their house, before suddenly crashing into the ground in front of them about 50m away. It burst into a fireball.
Mr Sullivan was first on the scene. He said he had run straight to the wreckage but it was clear there were no survivors.
“I did a 360 around (the wreckage) and there were flames from tip to tail, all I could hear was the crackle of the flames. There was no sign of life.”
He said the Skydive NZ team members who died in the crash lived locally during the tourist season and were known by everybody at Fox Glacier.
“The community had great respect for them. We would see them at the pub on Friday nights. They got involved with the community. Some of them had been here for several seasons. You get to know them.”
Parts of the charred wreckage were expected to be heli-lifted from the crash scene later today.