CRASH AT OHOPE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 149, 1 September 1941, Page 4

CRASH AT OHOPE

PLANE COMES TO GRIEF PILOT'S LUGKY ESCAPE Narrowly missing two houses and fortunately without injury to the pilot resulting, a light single seater bi-pilane ZK-ADV crashed when attempting to land at Ohope on Saturday morning. The pilot was Mr McKenzie, of Auckland, who that morning hadl flown from Rototrua to join Mrs McKenzie at Ohope. Apparently the pilot was manoeuvring for a landing on the beach when, at a low altitude, he was taught by the wind, missing the Sand to crash in the back yard of a house on the road slide of sandhill,. Dropping only about ten yards from the back door of Mj Sutherland's house, the undercarriage of the plane caught a low wireless aerial and the craft turned on its nose throwing the pilot clear. It appeared that, had the- aerial not been contacted, the plane would have struck the house occupied by Mr T. Wilson and with more serious consequences. The wings of the plane and undercarriage were bad' !y damaged.

The Tui, as the plane is named, has quite a history in flying .circles and is known to local pilots. Being very small and light it was splendidly built by the ground engineer of the Auckland Aero Glub and treated much interest amongst clubs. It was equipped with a three cylinder radial motor and the cockpit is such that a normally buiif man finds only sufficient room to take the controls. A local pilot recalled on Saturday having seen the late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith fly the craft at Auckland when he visited New Zea(and in the Southern Cross', and was amused to reflect on the difficulty, the famous pilot had in controlling the plane after having handled much heavier "ships."