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7 November 2005
AMSTERDAM — Ten helicopters searched over the weekend for missing millionaire helicopter pilot Michael Erceg and his Dutch passenger Guus Klatte, a regional director for Grolsch.
The Dutch beer company confirmed at the weekend that a helicopter went missing on Friday with Klatte and Erceg, the founder of Independent Liquor and New Zealand’s ninth richest man, on board.
A total of seventeen helicopters have been drafted in to continue the search on Monday. The search has been narrowed to the area between Mokau in Taranaki and Wanganui after several reported sightings of the helicopter on Friday, a spokesperson for the Rescue Co-ordination Centre said.
Klatte, who lives in the Netherlands, was on a business trip to New Zealand. He was the passenger on Erceg’s helicopter when it lifted off from Auckland on Friday morning (local time). The craft disappeared from air traffic control radar after half an hour.
Erceg’s family has expressed confidence both men are alive.
[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2005]
Subject: Dutch news