Friends return from search for missing family

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 10, 9 August 1983, Page 1

Friends return from search for missing family

At the time of going to press and after a week's intensive search by more than eighteen aircraft, still nothing has been seen or heard of Roy Turner (pictured) and his family from National Park, who went missing in the Southern Alps on Saturday 30 July. Roy Turner, in his 50s, his wife Anne, 33, daughter Kim, 7, and Guy, 4, were flying from Tekapo to Fox Glacier in a Cessna 172 when they went missing. They were combining a business and holiday trip to the South Island during a quite period at Whakapapa and National Park. Both Roy Turner who established a ski hire business at National Park in the mid 1960s and his wife Anne are experienced pilots -and the plane was carrying a range of winter gear including alpine wear and thermal blankets. Had they been able to put the plane down safely they would have been able to survive for some time and this is what has continued to give their friends hope and encouragement.

Friends of the Turner family have rallied round and raised more than $25,000 to assist with the expense of organising further private searches in helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. The official search was called of last week. Three people from National Park — Marshall Gebbie, Kevin Murcott and Murray Griffin, all took park in the search in the Southern Alps and on the West Coast but returned home on Sunday night exhausted and disconsolate at their lack of success in finding any trace of the Turners or their aircraft.