Police are today continuing their search for a missing helicopter, and its pilot, thought to have crashed at Lake Wanaka yesterday.
The helicopter left Wanaka Airport, Otago, around 1:00pm yesterday, and was headed towards Mount Aspiring National Park. The journey was expected to take 15 minutes.
At around 1.23pm Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ) received a notification from a helicopter company reporting one of its helicopters was overdue and had disappeared from their tracking systems at Lake Wanaka.
Police say there was one male pilot on-board.
Searchers saw an oil slick on the water and found wreckage on the shore, but no trace has so far been found of pilot Matt Wallis, who is the son of Warbirds over Wanaka founder Sir Tim Wallis.
The Mayor of Queenstown Lakes, Jim Boult, said Mr Wallis was very well known to the local community and he was shocked to hear the news.
The Wallis family is an institution in the district and his thoughts are with them, he said.
After co-ordinating with RCCNZ yesterday, the search has now been handed over to Police.
Items from the helicopter were located at Lake Wanaka, in Stevensons Arm.
A co-ordinated search effort will continue today around Stevensons Island, with Police working with LandSAR and Coastguard boats.
The Police National Dive Squad is due to join the search and will assess the situation this afternoon.
The weather this morning is cold but calm, offering a good opportunity for search teams to operate.
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