Two Taupo People Among Survivors Of Cessna Crash

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 42, 1 June 1965, Page 1

Two Taupo People Among Survivors Of Cessna Crash

A thankful wife and mother welcomed her husband and two-year-old son after they were helped out of heavy bush country west of the Desert Road on Saturday — two of five survivors of the crashed Cessna 172, earlier reported overdue and missing on a fliglit from Nelson. She was Mrs N. L. Polglase, of 112 Tuwharetoa Street, Taupo, whose husband, Nelson, and goung son, David, had spent the night in scrub and bush after the crash.

The aireraft, which was based at Taupo, was on a fiight from Nelson on Friday evening with the two Taupo members of the Polglase family, Mrs M. G. Noffke, and Mr A. N. . Polglase, of Rotorua. The pilot was Mr Anthony William Pratt, aged 29, of Rotorua. The party hacl been on a trip to Nelson to visit Mr Polglase senior's mother, "who was seriously ill. Although it was thought 110 oue was injured in the crash, the child was thrown from the plane at the time of impact and it is now thought he has a brok-en collarbone. Police, prison offieials and inmates of the Tongariro Prison Farm at Rangipo sent out a search party after the pilot walked from the crash to the main highway on Saturday morning.

Wearing only his socks j (he had given his shoes j to Mrs Noffke), he was very tired, but returned with the searchers to j guide them to the rest of tio e party. Wet, damp conditions onj the slopes of Mt. Ruapehuj ma.de conditions uncomfort-! abie for survivors and; searchers alike, Twice, aj party retraced the pilot's ! path from where he hadi left the group. Back in Taupo, Mr Nelson Polglase recounted his experiences.

"I do not remember any-( thing before the landing ex-j cept that one moment there was scrub under the plane, then the pilot seemed to j come level with the bush: and at the last moment, , when the undercarriage j touched the bush, he pulled the nose up and the tail went down. "After we struck, the door I of the plane flew open with : the impact and the baby was ; thrown off mv knee out the | door. | "I don't know how the ! other passengers reacted

after we stopped, because I immediately undid my | safety belt and climbed out j of the plane to find the | baby. "He was lying among j rubbish with each of his shoulders resting on bits of a teatree. "After the passengers got j out of the plane, we climbed j | to a riclge to see if we could j j see where we were. "I thought we had crash- j | ed about a mile from the j road. "We set off walking and it took us about nine hours j to get to the highway. The ; rescue party met us about j a mile into the bush."