Hawaii Couple on Honeymoon Dies in Helicopter Crash in Australia

Several media outlets are reporting that two tourists from Hawaii were killed and two other vacationers were injured in a helicopter crash on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in Queensland.

The crash occurred just after 3:30 p.m. Wednesday local time, off the Whitsunday Islands, a cluster of islands near the barrier reef that is a popular tourist destination, according to The Washington Post.

According to that report, the helicopter, carrying a total of five people, including the pilot, went down into the water near a large pontoon for snorkelers and divers close to the barrier reef, police said.

The coupled killed were identified as 79-year-old Peter Hensel and 65-year-old Sue Hensel, who got married last December and chose the Whitsundays as their honeymoon destination, according to The Guardian

A younger couple from Colorado, one of whom is believed to be Sue Hensel’s daughter, escaped with minor injuries, according to The Guardian. 

According to The Washington Post, the pilot, a 35-year-old man, also was injured, police said. Although local media outlets described the crash as resulting from a botched landing onto one of those smaller pontoons, Queensland police inspector Ian Haughton said it was too soon to determine what had caused the helicopter to go down, according to the Washington Post report.

According to Hawaii News Online, a crash investigation is underway, as confirmed by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau

The helicopter company, Whitsunday Air Services, suspended operations to focus on working with authorities to determine the cause of the crash, according to the Hawaii News Online report.  

In an official Whitsunday Air Services statement, the company said, “We are extremely saddened by this incident, and our deepest condolences are with the families of all of the passengers.”

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