Hawaii tourists killed in fatal Whitsunday helicopter crash 
 
 Updated 
 
 A helicopter crash that killed two tourists visiting from Hawaii is the second incident in four months for the company that operates the service. 
 
 The 79-year-old man and 65-year-old woman from Hawaii had been staying on Hamilton Island died after the helicopter crashed near Hardy Reef Pontoon around 3:30pm on Wednesday. 
 
 Three other people, the 35-year-old male pilot and two other Americans — a 34-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman, both from Colorado — were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. 
 
 Inspector Ian Haughton said the American passengers were all known to each other, but he would not say how. 
 
 "I'd rather keep that until we can be assured that the next of kin of those involved have been advised," he said. 
 
 "The pilot I understand managed to pull the elderly female from the plane." 
 
 In a statement, the US embassy said it was liaising with the family of the two American tourists killed in the crash and were providing appropriate assistance. 
 
 It said it could not comment further due to privacy issues. 
 
 Inspector Haughton said people were on a nearby dive and snorkel platform when the helicopter crashed. 
 
 "Some of those people were spoken to last night, and the other people, they will be part of the investigations that are continuing as we speak. 
 
 "It's been a traumatic experience for anyone involved in the situation there. 
 
 "There's been a number of people involved — the ferry service, the rescue helicopter from Townsville, the emergency services that attended, but for those people that were on board you couldn't begin to imagine the impact on those people." 
 
 The company, Whitsunday Air Services, said the helicopter was on final approach for a landing at the pontoon, which is about 65 kilometres north-east of the Whitsunday Islands. 
 
 Chief executive Brad Graves said at this stage the company didn't know how the accident happened. 
 
 "The entire Whitsunday Air Services team are devastated by this accident and our thoughts and condolences are with the passengers and their families. 
 
 "I would like to deeply thank all individuals who provided assistance at the scene including first aid care to those involved immediately after the accident, and the emergency services for their considerable efforts." 
 
 The company has suspended all operations while a review is undertaken. 
 
 Four Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) officers from Brisbane and Canberra arrived in the Whitsundays on Thursday to investigate the cause of the crash and try to obtain flight manuals and maintenance records. 
 
 ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood said investigators would it would be a wide-ranging investigation. 
 
 "They'll work very closely with the Queensland Police Service and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority firstly to recover the helicopter from the seabed and then commence piecing together the evidence, which will be so crucial to discovering what happened in this tragic accident," he said. 
 
 The pilot's evidence would also form part of the ATSB investigation. 
 
 Air safety investigators said a preliminary report into the crash should be ready by the end of April. 
 
 Power failure caused November incident 
 
 The crash came a day after the ATSB released a report into an incident in November in which a Whitsunday Air Services helicopter ditched off Hamilton Island. 
 
 It concluded that for "undetermined reasons" the helicopter's engine partially lost power. 
 
 The pilot deployed floatation devices on the Robinson R44 and the three passengers were able to be rescued uninjured. 
 
 The helicopter eventually sank and could not be recovered. 
 
 ATSB is also investigating what caused a Cessna to bounce on water and crash into trees as it came into land on Hamilton Island on January 28, 2016. 
 
 One passenger had minor injuries. 
 
 The plane was registered to Hamilton Island Air which is a registered business of Whitsunday Air Services. 
 
 'It's gut-wrenching', Mayor says 
 
 Whitsunday Mayor Andrew Willcox said the whole local tourism industry would be affected by the crash. 
 
 Mr Willcox said it was a tight-knit industry and community. 
 
 "It's just gut-wrenching. It's not good. My deepest sympathies goes out to those who lost their lives and those that were injured." 
 
 "I know most of the tourism operators in the Whitsundays personally and I know they all hold their passenger experience and safety as their number one priority, so it will be a sombre day for us in the Whitsundays. 
 
 "My thoughts and prayers at this stage are with the families affected by this." 
 
 Hamilton Island Enterprises CEO Glenn Bourke issued a statement saying he was deeply saddened the accident. 
 
 "I would like to express Hamilton Island's deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones and to those passengers and the pilot who were injured in the accident," he said. 
 
 Topics: air-and-space, disasters-and-accidents, emergency-incidents, whitsundays-4802, townsville-4810, cairns-4870, brisbane-4000, qld, mackay-4740 
 
 First posted ||||| In this Wednesday, March 21, 2018, image made from video, a body recovered from a helicopter crash is wheeled on to a wharf in Queensland, Australia. Two Americans were killed and two injured when a helicopter... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Wednesday, March 21, 2018, image made from video, a body recovered from a helicopter crash is wheeled on to a wharf in Queensland, Australia. Two Americans were killed and two injured when a helicopter crashed on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Whitsunday Air Services suspended operations as... (Associated Press) 
 
 BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — A helicopter carrying American tourists crashed at a coral-viewing site on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, killing two passengers from Hawaii and injuring two others from Colorado, police said. 
 
 The helicopter pilot pulled one passenger from the wreckage after Wednesday's crash but desperate attempts to revive the 65-year-old woman failed, Police Inspector Ian Haughton said Thursday. A 79-year-old man also died despite bystanders' attempts to resuscitate him, Haughton said. 
 
 A 34-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman were taken to the Australian mainland for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, he said. All four tourists knew each other. 
 
 The five-seat, single-engine Eurocopter EC120 Colibri crashed 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of the Whitsunday Islands near a pontoon that has underwater viewing chambers to see coral and is a popular tourist destination. 
 
 The U.S. Embassy in Australia said in a statement it was aware that two U.S. citizens had died and was "providing all appropriate consular assistance." 
 
 Whitsunday Air Services said the helicopter was approaching the pontoon to land when it crashed. 
 
 The company had suspended operations as it works with authorities to determine the cause of the crash. 
 
 "We are extremely saddened by this incident and our deepest condolences are with the families of all of the passengers," the company said in a statement. 
 
 The Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed a crash investigation was underway. ||||| The pilot of a helicopter which crashed in the Whitsundays killing two passengers tried desperately to save them. 
 
 An American couple, aged 65 and 79, from Hawaii was killed when the helicopter plummeted into the water. 
 
 The chopper had almost touched down on a helipad on Hardy Reef when it plummeted into the ocean 200 metres away from the Heart Pontoon, that was closed to tourists but packed with staff, who rushed to their aid. 
 
 Staff desperately performed CPR with instruction from paramedics over the phone but sadly, the couple couldn't be saved. 
 
 Their bodies were brought back to Airlie Beach late on Wednesday night. 
 
 Inspector Ian Haughton said his understanding is the pilot managed to pull the elderly female from the chopper. 
 
 The woman's 33-year-old daughter and her boyfriend, both from Colorado in the US, survived, along with the pilot. 
 
 "The entire Whitsunday Air Services team are devastated by this accident and our thoughts and condolences are with the passengers and their families," Chief Executive Officer of Whitsunday Air Services, Brad Graves, said. 
 
 The attention has since turned to what went wrong. 
 
 "The investigation will determine all aspects of the mechanical servicing of that helicopter what happened at the scene that may have been a contributing factor any possibility of error," Inspector Haughton said. 
 
 Former Fantasy Cruises Employee Craig Watson said he can't pinpoint what could have gone wrong. 
 
 "The pilots are quite used to flying out there over the water, and some of them even do the ship landings in Mackay and Hay Point. They're used to flying in all weather conditions," he said. 
 
 Water police spent Thursday on Hamilton Island interviewing witnesses but it could be several days before the wreckage can be recovered. 
 
 It's the company's second air incident in four months, its third in two years. 
 
 In November another one of its helicopters made an unexpected landing near Bait Reef where four people were rescued. Again in March 2016, 11 people were onboard a seaplane when it crash landed onto an island. 
 
 "We were scheduled on that flight for today so it's a normal thing a tourist would do, it's an exciting once in a lifetime thing," tourist Debbie Frank said. "So to lose your life doing that is just so senseless." 
 
 The daughter and her partner were questioned extensively by investigators on Thursday. Friends of the pilot say he is distraught but has plenty of support from colleagues and friends. 
 
 The company has suspended all operations while a full review is carried out.
– Two US tourists died Wednesday when the helicopter carrying them over Australia's Great Barrier Reef smacked into the water some 40 miles northeast of the Whitsunday Islands, authorities say. The Whitsunday Air Services helicopter was approaching a pontoon atop the Great Barrier Reef when it dropped about 650 feet away, Yahoo7 reports. The 35-year-old male pilot escaped and was seen pulling a 65-year-old woman from the chopper as it sank. Her 79-year-old husband was also recovered, but both died despite attempts to resuscitate them, a police inspector tells the AP. The Hawaiian couple's 33-year-old daughter and her 34-year-old boyfriend, both from Colorado, escaped with non-life threatening injuries, reports ABC Australia. Whitsunday Air Services CEO Brad Graves says the company is "devastated" but has yet to determine what went wrong with the single-engine Eurocopter EC120 Colibri. Australian Transport Safety Bureau Commissioner Greg Hood says investigators will "recover the helicopter from the seabed and then commence piecing together the evidence … in this tragic accident." It isn't the company’s first. Another of its helicopters crash-landed in water in November when its engine partially lost power, though no one was injured. A plane owned by a registered business of Whitsunday Air Services also bounced on water then crashed into trees in the Whitsundays in January 2016, leaving one passenger with minor injuries. That crash is still under investigation.