Three crew members aboard a helicopter that crashed off the New Zealand coast while on route to attempt a medical evacuation from a fishing boat have been found alive on a remote island.
Rescue Coordination Centre duty manager Kevin Banaghan says the crew members were found on Tuesday in their survival suits walking on a beach on uninhabited Auckland Island, some 500km southwest of Invercargill where they flew from.
Banaghan did not have all the details on what happened but the outcome was great news, he said.
The final contact with the helicopter was at 7.37pm local time on Monday and it dropped from radar soon after.
A P-3 Orion plane searched unsuccessfully for the helicopter overnight, before a fishing boat found a side door on Tuesday.
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