Vic: Search for paraglider pilot to be scaled down

AAP General News (Australia)
04-09-2001
Vic: Search for paraglider pilot to be scaled down

MELBOURNE, April 9 AAP - The search for an injured paraglider pilot missing for five
days near Tawonga in north-eastern Victoria will be scaled down today.

Gene Paul Larsen, 34, of the New Zealand city of Rotorua, has not been seen since taking
off from Mystic Point, near the Tawonga Gap, at 3pm (AEST) Wednesday.

A police spokesman said most of those involved in search teams over the weekend were
volunteers and had to return to work this morning.

Robert Johnstone, of the State Emergency Service, said they had been told their assistance
was no longer required as hopes fade for the man's survival.

"Obviously, they (searchers) are scaling down, I think the police will still be up
there searching and following up a few last minute things."

The search intensified yesterday with the addition of more than 110 army personnel
who have since returned to Melbourne, but there has been no sign of the missing man since
he indicated to searchers via UHF radio on Thursday that he was injured.

But he was not able to give them his position and it is believed his radio batteries
would now be flat.

Mr Johnstone said overnight weather was mild, nowhere near as cold as it sometimes
gets in the high country at this time of year.

"Conditions overnight weren't too bad. There wasn't any rain, and it was pretty mild," he said.

Police Acting Inspector Neil Fursdon yesterday told reporters police were keeping the
man's family in New Zealand informed about the search with two-hourly phone calls, but
hopes of finding Mr Larsen alive were diminishing.

"We've got considerable concerns now of finding the person alive," he told ABC.

He said the army teams yesterday traced a number of possible flight paths along which
Mr Larsen may have crashed, worked out with the help of paraglider pilots familiar with
the area centred on the Tawonga Gap, between Bright and Mt Beauty.

Yesterday's search over 35 square kilometres involved State Emergency Services (SES)
personnel with 12 four-wheel drive vehicles, bushwalking club members, paragliding association
volunteers, uniformed police and a helicopter.

AAP db/gfr/gmw/br

KEYWORD: PARAGLIDER DAYLEAD

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