FED: Searchers fail to find any trace of snowboarders

AAP General News (Australia)
08-16-1999
FED: Searchers fail to find any trace of snowboarders

The Army has sent an aircraft fitted with state-of-the-art thermal imaging equipment to
help in the search for four snowboarders lost in the Snowy Mountains.

The Beech 350 Super King Air left Oakey Air Base about 3.15pm after a request from the
State Emergency Operations Centre and is expected to arrive at Cooma early this evening.

It will join the hunt as soon as the crew has been briefed by search authorities.

Searchers have found no trace of the Sydney men after using heavy machinery to clear
hundreds of tonnes of snow which had collapsed from a snow cave.

The failure to find any trace of the men has ended the theory that they'd been buried while
sheltering from extraordinary blizzard conditions.

Police will tomorrow turn the attention back to Lake Albina, the camp site SCOTT
BEARDSMORE, 26, his brother PAUL, 24, and their 25-year-old companions DEAN PINCINI and
TIMOTHY FRIEND had proposed before they began their three-day adventure nine days ago.

AAP RTV mfh/am/jn

KEYWORD: SNOWBOARDERS (PERISHER NSW)

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