Two men are lucky to be alive after they emergency landed a helicopter in rough terrain on the Southern Alps. The Rescue Coordination Centre of New Zealand received a distress beacon alert at 8.18am this morning. Maritime NZ spokesman Mark Dittmer said the beacon alert was set off 13km north east of Otira in Graf Creek. "They're extremely lucky they have landed the helicopter and survived the incident. A Police spokeswoman confirmed they received an alert around 8.30am from an area North West of the Crawford Range.

Source: New Zealand Herald March 03, 2017 20:54 UTC