What: Hevilift Bell 206
Where: Mt Hagen in the PNG Southern Highlands.
When: July 6, 2012
Who: 3 aboard
Why: A helicopter is missing in Papua New Guinea. The pilot Russell Aikten recently achieved some fame after rescuing victims of the “Black Saturday” fire, and used to fly the Westpac Surf Life Saving Rescue Helicopter.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority and Hevilift are deploying teams to search for Captain Aikten, Chief pilot Antony Annan, and engineer Emmett Fynn. They left a mayday call about five minutes after leaving the InterOil Drill Rig site at 3.25pm Friday. They were en route to Creek to re-fuel and flying in an area reported to have low visibility at the time.
After days of searching, nothing has been found. Tuesday searchers will be using a helicopter fitted with a magnetometer, used to detect large mineral deposits. They hope it will pick up metal from the missing aircraft. The Australian Defence Force will be deploying two Blackhawks to assist in the search, in addition to the aero-medical evacuation team, additional observers and a downed aircraft recovery team.
