Australia Chopper Crash

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Canoe

Monday, July 24, 2000

Five die in Australia chopper crash

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- Five people, including a woman and her 5-year-old son, were killed early Monday when a rescue helicopter crashed in thick fog in central Queensland state.

The Bell helicopter crashed just north of the mining township of Marlborough, more than 310 miles north of the state capital of Brisbane.

The pilot had radioed that he was running short of fuel soon after taking off from a remote rural property, said Stephen Robertson, Queensland emergency services minister. The pilot had just picked up the mother and child, who was suffering a severe attack of croup, an inflammation of the larynx.

The pilot unsuccessfully tried to land several times at the Marlborough school grounds. "Police then lit up the nearby highway to provide a safe landing point, but as they were doing this they heard a crash and the chopper was down," Robertson said.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), July 24, 2000


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