The traumatised tourist resort of about 400 permanent residents lost five locals, and the international tourist community four young people, in the Skydive New Zealand accident.
Prime Minister John Key expressed his condolences, while the Westland district Mayor Maureen Pugh, deputy mayor Bryce Thomson, communications manager Gerry Morris and West Coast MP Chris Auchinvole visited Fox Glacier yesterday to offer support.
The New Zealand Air Force offered its assistance and an Australian High Commission representative was expected in Fox Glacier yesterday.
Victim Support workers were in Fox Glacier yesterday, with more to arrive today, as well as a peer support team for the volunteer fire brigade.
Family members of the deceased had started arriving in the town but declined to talk to media.
Fox Glacier Development Society Inc, the local community association, said in a statement by Abyee Williams yesterday it was "shocked and saddened".
Many in the tight-knit community were yesterday also unwilling to talk to the media, and in the statement provided by police, Ms Williams asked for the families' and community's privacy to be respected.
"This is only a small community and the impact of this situation has been felt by all who live in Fox Glacier and South Westland. Our community is a small, close-knit family and we have all been touched by the events that unfolded yesterday. We are providing ongoing support to those affected and will recover from this event in time to come," the statement said.
Mrs Pugh, on the verge of tears as she spoke at a media conference, said she wanted to support the community, emergency services volunteers and the Skydive New Zealand staff and their families.
The council would do everything it could to assist visits by families of the deceased, she said.
The nine bodies were still on site until late yesterday as members of the police disaster identification unit, police serious crash unit, the Transport Accident Investigation Commission, Civil Aviation Authority and coroner began identifying the victims and establishing what went wrong.
Sergeant Jackie Scott, of Greymouth, the officer in charge of the investigation, said the bodies were scheduled to be taken to Auckland last night for postmortems, given the pressure on Christchurch because of Saturday's earthquake.
The New Zealand Air Force offered to transport the bodies.
Sgt Scott appealed for witnesses to Saturday's accident to contact police.
At least 20 people had been interviewed and it was believed many more people, including tourists, saw the crash.
The former cropdusting plane, a 1981 Fletcher fixed-wing, had been fitted with a new 954 turbine engine by Super Air Waikato in July and had been overhauled to meet regulations governing the skydiving industry.
It had flown 80 hours on its new engine and had been nearly due a 100-hour service in Timaru.
The company has operated from Fox Glacier since October 1997, completing about 4800 jumps annually. It had a 100% safety record.
LIVES LOST
• Rodney Miller (55), Greymouth, dive master and business owner.
• Adam Bennett (47), lived in Motueka but of Australia, dive master.
• Michael Suter (32), New Plymouth, dive master.
• Christopher McDonald (62), Mapua, dive master.
• Chaminda Senadhira (33), Queenstown, pilot.
• Patrick Byrne (26), County Wexford, Ireland, tourist.
• Glenn Bourke (18), Coburg, Victoria, Australia, tourist.
• Annita Kirsten (23), Germany, tourist.
• Brad Coker (24), Farnborough, United Kingdom, tourist.
