Dreamworld chopper crash

The owners of a helicopter that crashed at the Dreamworld theme park on the Gold Coast in south-east Queensland yesterday will conduct their own investigation.

Four Asian tourists and pilot Matsumi Sato received minor injuries when the Bell JetRanger helicopter crashed in the theme park's car park at about 4pm AEST yesterday.

The helicopter lost power as it came in to land, but the pilot managed to steer it away from crowds before crash-landing in an empty part of the car park.

Dreamworld spokeswoman Shelley Winkel says the chopper took park visitors on joy flights.

"The business itself is owned by James Technology and I have spoken with the owner and he is going to launch a full investigation into it," she said.

"He was saying there is A1 maintenance on that machine and we will be working him and the authorities just to find out as much as we can as to what happened."

Ms Winkel says Mr Sato's helicopter lost power while preparing to land but he managed to steer the machine away from danger.

"He's got an incredible amount of experience," she said.

"He's a grade one instructor pilot and he's got more than 8,500 hours of piloting experience, so we have had someone with a huge amount of experience.

"I guess the outcome has been as good as can be expected given the situation."

Acting Superintendent Neil Haslam from Queensland Police says investigators want to know why the helicopter lost power while preparing to land.

"At this particular point in the time the forensic investigations are continuing," he said.

"The Air Transport Safety Bureau are assisting and are attending the Gold Coast today to visit the forensic crash unit to obtain a briefing and they'll progress their investigations along with our people out there.

"I guess it's pretty obvious that a significant loss in power has occurred and they'll be trying to determine what caused that."

'Lucky to be alive'

Ambulance spokesman Cary Strong said yesterday Mr Sato and the four passengers were taken to the Gold Coast hospital with relatively minor injuries and are lucky to be alive.

"Four of those have been treated with cervical type injuries and the fifth person has actually been treated with a lower spinal injury in the coccyx area, cervical area," he said.

"The only limb injury we have sustained was one of them has a minor ankle injury and that's about it."

Queensland Fire and Rescue spokesman Mark Gribble said crews at the crash scene said it was fortunate the chopper's fuel did not ignite.

"Sparks could certainly have ignited broken fuel tanks - this sort of fuel is very flammable indeed," he said.

Witness Lauren Nicole said yesterday the pilot had done a good job.

"I'm really thankful that he did as far away from the other cars and other citizens as possible, which was really good," she said.

Chopper crashes into car park

Lucky escape: The helicopter lies on its side in the Dreamworld car park (ABC)

Passengers on a helicopter joyflight are lucky to be alive after their chopper crashed into the car park at the Dreamworld theme park on the Gold Coast on Wednesday afternoon.

Pilot Mat Sumi Sato's Bell JetRanger helicopter lost power as he came in to land at about 4:00pm, but he managed to steer it away from crowds before crash-landing in an empty part of the car park.

Ambulance spokesman Cary Strong says the pilot and four Asian tourists on board were taken to the Gold Coast Hospital with relatively minor injuries and are lucky to be alive.

"Four of those have been treated with cervical type injuries and the fifth person has actually been treated with a lower spinal injury in the coccyx area, cervical area," he said.

"The only limb injury we have sustained was one of them has a minor ankle injury and that's about it."

Dreamworld spokeswoman Shelley Winkle says the helicopter had been returning from a joyflight.

"The pilot has reportedly lost power as he was landing the chopper. He has steered the chopper to avoid a crowded area and landed the chopper in a completely empty area of the carpark," she said.

Witness Lauren Nicole says the pilot did a good job.

"I'm really thankful that he did as far away from the other cars and other citizens as possible, which was really good," she said.

Police are now investigating what caused the helicopter to crash.

Rat Island rat-free

Alaska's Rat Island is finally rat-free, 229 years after a Japanese shipwreck spilled rampaging rodents onto the remote Aleutian island, decimating the local bird population.

After dropping poison onto the island from helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a half last autumn, there are no signs of living rats and some birds have returned, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rats have ruled the island since 1780, when they jumped off a sinking Japanese ship and terrorised all but the largest birds on the island.

The incident introduced the non-native Norway rat, also known as the brown rat, to Alaska.

The $US2.5 million Rat Island eradication project, a joint effort between the US Government, the Nature Conservancy and Island Conservation, is one of the world's most ambitious attempts to remove destructive alien species from an island.

Now there are signs that several species of birds, including Aleutian cackling geese, ptarmigan, peregrine falcons and black oystercatchers, are starting to nest again on the 26 square kilometre island.

Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Bruce Woods says they will officially be able to declare the island rat-free after two years of monitoring.

"We don't know that there's not a couple of happy rats hiding away that are going to spring out and repopulate the island," he said.

Relax - Do Not Worry

Worry and fear are emotions that often reduce our ability to enjoy life and participate as fully as we would like. Worry can negatively influence our outlook on life, it can hold you back from achieving your full potential and can impact on your realationships and interaction others.

Worry is concern or fear about something that might happen in the future. Worrying is not always negative behaviour - there are positive as well as negative aspects to worry.

--------------- Positive -----------------------

-:- Motives us
-:- Reminds us of past errors
-:- Helps us to to anticipate problems
-:- Encourages us to plan
-:- Encourages us to develop skills

--------------- Negative -----------------------

-:- Wastes valuable time
-:- Makes us dwell on past failures
-:- Leads us to being stuck in problems
-:- Exaggerates difficulties
-:- Erodes confidence

Some people will be more prone to worry than others.

This is due to:

-:- Personality factors
-:- External locus of control
-:- Irrational thinking
-:- Lack of confidence
-:- Low self-esteem
-:- Lack of skils
-:- Key influnces in our lives
-:- Tendency to make comparisons

Continual worry can lead to stress responces. While some stress in our lives is both nomal and necessary, excessive stress is not. Stress symptoms generally fall into four categories - emotional, physical, behavioural and thought. It is important to be able to recognise the symptoms of stress in yourself and to think about ways to minimise your stress response.

Emotional Physical
-:- Irritable -:- Sleep problems
-:- Anxious -:- Headaches/General aches
-:- Depressed -:- Stomach discomfort

Behavioural Thought