Low-flying Aircraft At Rotorua Complained Of

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 7

Low-flying Aircraft At Rotorua Complained Of

"The Pre**" Special Service ROTORUA, March 8. Complaints have been received by the Rotorua police after the dropping of flour bombs by a low-flying aircraft on competitors taking part in a golf tournament. But the complaints have not come from the golfers, who enjoyed having the flour sprayed over them. The occasion was the annual Rotorua Returned Services Association golf tournament at the Arikikapakapa golf course. For the last 15 years it has been the practice to drop flour bombs from the air on those taking part. But this year a few local residents have complained at the low level at which the aircraft flew. Rotorua people are particularly conscious of the perils of low-flying after the release last week by the chief inspec-

tor of air accidents, Wing Commander O. J. O’Brien, of the report on the air crash which killed a Rotorua radio announcer at Western Heights last October. The announcer, Mr John Derek Bedford Murdoch, aged 39, was flying below the minimum safety height allowed by the Civil Aviation Regulations before the accident. Superintendent L. R. Blake, officer in charge of the Rotorua police station, said the latest low flying accident was under investigation. The- Civil Aviation Department had been informed.

The senior Civil Aviation Department official in Rotorua, the airport superintendent, Mr T. Sinclair, would make no comment on the incident. He said he would prepare a report and forward it to Wellington.