Week-end of tragedy, rescues, in Fiordland

Press, 12 November 1979, Page 1

Week-end of tragedy, rescues, in Fiordland

PA Invercargill . < Two persons drowned in boating accidents on Lake ] Manapouri during the ' week-end. In other Fiordland acci- 1 dents, a climber was rescued off a rock face, and two men were saved after a helicopter crash. A Manapouri teen-ager drowned within metres of the lake’s shore yesterday : after apparently suffering cramp. He was Edward William Tallentire, aged 17. He had been in a boat i pith Susan Chadwick, aged |4 also of Manapouri, and tnother youth when the boat Iroke down close to shore. He tried to swim the short. |istance to the beach for teip, when, according to. Constable L. Matheson, of' !e Anau, he suffered a sevtre bout of cramp. Miss Chadwick immedittely went to his aid but, Tonstable Matheson said, . •he could not handle him Ind was dragged under by (is weight. An onlooker, Christopher Seorge Goods, aged 15, went to help them, but he too |ot into difficulties. A passing jet boat finally jescued him and Miss ChadVick. The accident happened Ibout 12.30 p.m. The body

of Mr Tailentire was recovered at 4.30 p.m. A hunting and fishing holiday ended in tragedy when an Omarama man drowned in Lake Manapouri. He was Russell Lindsay Wardon, aged 39, married, with five children. Mr Wardon and his companion, Wayne Arthur Hill, aged 33, also of Omarama, were returning to Stockyard Cove from Manapouri about 8.30 p.m. on Friday when their six-metre cruiser struck a submerged rock and sank. Mr Hill swam the 30 metres to shore against an off-shore wind and spent a cold night in the open. He was unable to find Mr Wardon but presumed he had come ashore further along the shoreline. At 9 a.m. on Saturday Mr Hill encountered some hunters near Stockyard Cove and told them what had happened. The alarm was raised and a search startc for the missing man. His body -was recovered from the lake about midday on Saturday. After another accident, an injured climber was plucked off the barrier face in the Homer Tunnel area of Fiordland National Park on Saturday. He had fallen about 12m down the face. Keith Murray Pollock,

aged 28, of Dunedin, broke a leg when he fell down the face On to a ledge on Saturday morning while taking part in a climb in the Gertrude Saddle area, organised by the Otago Mountaineering Club. A helicopter was called from Te Anau and a scoop net used to pluck him off the face. Dr T. Walker, of Te Anau, was lifted up the face in the net and helped bring Mr Pollock off safely.

After treatment at Te Anau, Mr Pollock was transferred to Southland Hospital, Invercargill. After a third accident, late-night searchers flying in darkness found two men, one badly dazed, beside their crashed helicopter at the head of a Fiordland river on Saturday. The Hughes 300 C helicopter flown by Austin Osborne, of Te Anau, and with a shooter, Richard Stent, also of Te Anau, on board, was reported Overdue about 9 p.m. on Saturday. The two had failed to return from shooting in the wapiti area of Fiordland National Park.

During an aerial reconnaisance by a Jet Ranger helicopter and a fixedwing aircraft, the missing mactiine’s emergency locator beacon was detected just after 11.20 p.m. and its position pinpointed in

the head of the Glaisnock River.

The Jet Ranger’s pilot. Bill Black, of Te Anau, landed his machine upriver of the crashed machine in darkness and made his way through the bush to the crash site.

There he found both occupants, with Mr Osborne in a dazed state. He apparently had been unconscious for about four hours. Mr Stent, who suffered only superficial injuries, had removed him from the crippled machine and strapped him in a survival blanket. Messrs Black and Stent were able to help Mr Osborne back to the Jet Ranger and they flew back to the Waiau airfield near Te Anau, arriving at 12.45 a.m. yesterday.

Mr Stent was treated at Te Anau and allowed to go home, and Mr Osborne was transferred to Southland Hospital, -where yesterday he was in the intensive-care unit.

The accident is thought to have happened while ttie men were recovering a deer.

In August, a Hughes 500 helicopter crashed in the Artti u r Valley in Fiordland. The shooter died some hours after the crash, and the pilot, David Richardson is still in Burwood Hospital’s spinal unit.