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BBC MUNDO RADIO
By MICHAEL FORBES, AMANDA FISHER and KIRAN CHUG - The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 26/04/2010
"We're a small defence force and we know those people. The prime minister knows them. I know them. We fly with them all of the time. They're part of our family."
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The crash of an air force Iroquois helicopter into mist-shrouded hills has devastated families and friends of those who were killed.
One of the air force's worst peacetime air crashes shocked New Zealanders on the day they remember those who die in the line of service.
Three young men were killed and a fourth received serious chest and leg injuries when their Iroquois crashed at Pukerua Bay, north of Wellington, just before 6am, minutes before it was to take part in a three-helicopter flypast over the capital's Anzac Day dawn parade.
The dead were the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Hayden Peter Madsen, 33, the co-pilot, Flying Officer Daniel Stephen Gregory, 28, and crewman Corporal Benjamin Andrew Carson, 25, of Christchurch.
Their bodies were taken from the site last night.
Prime Minister John Key is cutting short his trip to Turkey, where he was attending Anzac Day services.
Flying Officer Gregory's father, Steve Gregory, said last night that Anzac Day would forever be a time to mourn his son and celebrate everything he accomplished.
Mr Gregory, who flew from Melbourne yesterday with his wife Wendy, said the family was shell-shocked. "Our son died doing something that he wanted to do, which was honouring those who had gone before him," he said.
"We have so many happy memories of him ... We were always in awe of all the things he could do and had accomplished. He was very intelligent. For a private in the army to become an officer in the air force does not happen every day."
All three men lived on or near Ohakea airbase and leave partners, but no children.
"RIP Mad dog" was included in the tributes left on Flight Lieutenant Madsen's Facebook site. Freyberg Cricket Club president JD Fulton paid tribute to Flight Lieutenant Madsen, who had played for the club since moving from Taradale to Palmerston North 12 years ago.
"It's a pretty hard day for the guys. Everyone's feeling a bit different but they're all pretty devastated.
"It certainly puts a new meaning on Anzac Day for us," said Mr Fulton, who added that Flight Lieutenant Madsen felt honoured to be part of his first flyby on Anzac Day.
Flight Lieutenant Madsen had only lately come to terms with the death of his flight instructor, Squadron Leader Nick Cree, in a trainer accident near Bulls in January.
St Andrew's College principal Roland Burrows said Corporal Carson's enthusiasm was always evident while he was at the Christchurch school. "He was a quiet boy, kept to himself, but he was always determined to get into the air force."
Mr Key paid tribute to the men at the dawn service in Gallipoli yesterday. "Our hearts go out to their families and to the men and women of the New Zealand air force."
He hopes to be back in New Zealand by tomorrow morning and to attend the men's funerals.
Defence chief Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae said the contingent of personnel with him at Gallipoli were all feeling the loss.
ir Force chief Air Vice-Marshal Graham Lintott paid tribute to the men at a press conference at
Ohakea airbase yesterday.
He said a court of inquiry would be launched into the crash. The air force had not dealt with three fatalities in one accident since an Iroquois crashed into Kaipara Harbour, Northland, in 1972.
Three helicopters were flying in formation to Wellington when the accident happened.
"We believe the formation split up and went their individual way. One landed at Wellington, one landed at Paraparaumu," Air Vice-Marshal Lintott said. "The flight regime would have been standard. The weather was poor but we fly in poor weather all the time."
As far as he was aware, the pilots were following proper procedures and he could only "assume" the helicopter was on course. He did not know if the pilots were using their night vision goggles.
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