Missing Dakota Crashed Into Hillside

Chronicle (Levin), 10 August 1948, Page 5

Missing Dakota Crashed Into Hillside

Press Association) .

(Per

' . WELLINGTON, Aug. 9. A Dakota air freigkter under charter to' the Itailways DepartDient, erasked into the side "of a hill at Fort Uhdervvood while 011 a flight from Blenheim to 4 Para*paraiimu this morning. The ,first land party to reach the scene, fonnd the wreckage lit- - tered over an area of abouf 400sqiiare yards. The bodies of the erew, Commander M. C. MaeLeod and Commander R. J. R. H. Makgill, wbre thrown a considerable distanee in front of the wreckage. It was apparent that they had been killed outright. The fnselage of the plane was bnrnt out, but the tail assembly and wings were still intact. The first eye-witness account of the disaster came from a party from the Te Awaite whaling station in Tory Channel, compri'sfing Messrs. J. A. Perano, J. H. Perano, G. P. Perano, J. Hooey and B. Parkes. The party, which had set out along the coastline in a whale ehaser, accompanied h> the ves'sel Tuatea which acts as a mothership to the ehasers, fiist sighted the wreckage just before 3 p.m. about '1000 feet up on a ridge separating Port Underwood from Cook Strait. It was aboul 1|- miles to the sonth of Rununde) Point where it was first reported that the crash had occurred. It took the party about half an hour to cliinb the steep tussoek covered ridge and as soon as it was ascertained that the erew of the plane had been killed, word was sent back tp Flying Control, Wellington,. by wireless from the Tuatea. A police party left Blenheim about 3 p.m. today and after travelling from the Wairau bar by ' launch, arkived at the scene just after 5.30 p.m. "We have no idea whatevei' what could have happened/' said Win g-Com mand er L. F. Taylor :)irgcthf,,of Air Traffic Control). : ' With th0:lciacl it' was carryipg it sh ouTd haYO\%e.§B- ahle to maintain height. Both p'ilofs were. excep-' tionally experjenced men and sliouid any trouble with the aircraft have developed we would have expected tb • fecelve :a 'f adio report from them." "ff tlie pilotf intended to "ditch" the aircraft .through engine trouble . they would have wirelessed their ,iivtentloJLN?^ •: , ' ' -' y . ■ C • ;