E-Malt.com News article: Australia: Dutch brewery executive Guus Klatte and multimillionaire Michael Erceg found dead

The bodies of liquor baron Michael Erceg and his passenger, Dutch brewery executive Guus Klatte, were found in the night of November 19 in the wreckage of their crashed helicopter, on Mt Karioi, west of Raglan, according to the Fairfax New Zealand.

Lindsay Sturt, Rescue Coordination Centre’s spokesman said the wreckage of the helicopter was spotted by air by members of the family's private search party about 6pm last night. He understood the men would have died on impact. Klatte's devastated fiancee Florentyn Heering returned to the search headquarters at Raglan air strip after visiting the scene of the crash. She collapsed in tears into the arms of her friends and parents.

"Life's a bitch. I can't believe it's him. All that searching ... what was it for?". The men had been missing for 16 days, since November 4 when the pair left Auckland for Queenstown, where Erceg owned property. Erceg, 48, was flying the aircraft.

The search efforts of the family intensified on November 19 after Erceg's brother Ivan reported hearing what he thought was his brother's voice saying "We're down here", over an emergency transmitter as he and several others flew over Mt Pirongia on Friday.

Then, Ivan Erceg said he was convinced it was his brother's voice. "It just zapped us. It was a voice I have heard before. It was a voice I know that is tired. It sounded exactly like my brother's voice," he said.

The wreckage was in a steep bush-clad valley on farmland owned by Dave Peacocke, 500m from the base of the mountain, near Te Hutewai Rd. It was discovered near where the aircraft was last seen on radar on November 4.

"Our thoughts go out to the family. While we are delighted they have been found, and it can give the family some closure, it obviously means the hopes of the family have been dashed," said Sturt.

Members of Erceg's family, including wife Lynette, were last night gathered at his mansion in Papakura, south of Auckland. George Uerata, who has worked for Erceg's company Independent Liquor for 10 years and who yesterday joined the search for his boss because "I felt I owed him something", felt mixed emotions at the discovery: "I am feeling happy and sad. Happy that they have found him and sad that he has left us."

Raglan constable Dave Litton said police were examining the site of the wreckage last night and the bodies would be removed today.

Erceg developed a fortune estimated at $620 million. He began by brewing beer in 1987, then pioneered the hugely successful alco-pop beverages. He was ninth on the National Business Review's Rich List. Former Rich List editor Graeme Hunt last night said Erceg was a "remarkable businessman in that he never planned to be a multimillionaire".

"He wasn't a businessman by nature at all. He was a mathematician who really became active in business by accident." Erceg had been studying mathematics in America when his father's failing health forced him to return to New Zealand to run the family's West Auckland vineyard.

"He had a great mind. He had this zany logic of applying mathematical principles to business. He was different from anybody in the liquor trade - there was no old boys network helping him."

The $1.7m Eurocopter chopper disappeared in low cloud and drizzle on November 4. It was last seen on radar south of Raglan Harbour at 10.14am that day, flying at just 335m. Christchurch air traffic control alerted the centre about 4pm that it had failed to turn up for a scheduled refuelling at Rangiora. The official search was called off after several days, but Ivan Erceg continued to run a multimillion-dollar private search, determined to find his brother.

The search covered much of the central North Island after members of the public reported sightings of the aircraft.

Erceg began flying several years ago, and his family and friends said he was a "fine pilot".


22 November, 2005