FLASHBACK

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 23, 6 November 1984, Page 1

FLASHBACK

In view of the recent happenings in the Waimarino we thought our readers may like to read of the events that occurred in October 1948 — thirty-six years ago almost to the day. The following story is reprinted from the New Zealand Herald of 30 October 1948. Missing Airliner Found on Mountainside

Missing for a week with a crew of two and eleven passengers, the Lockheed Electra airliner Kaka was found wrecked yesterday on the south-western slopes of Mt Ruapehu. There was no sign of life. Discovery of the lost airliner brings to an end nearly seven days of the most intensive air search ever made in New Zealand. Half-buried in the snow, the wreckage was first seen by Flying Officer D.W. Gray, radio operator of one of the searching Dakotas from Auckland. A glint of silver against the snow caught the radio operator's eye. It was due east of Lake Surprise, at an altitude of 6000 feet. From the air it appeared that the Electra crashed into the mountainside and then tumbled into a steep gully. The plane left Palmerston North last Saturday afternoon for Hamilton but failed to arrive.

The air search went on for days, despite bad weather that included, snow, heavy rain, low cloud that clung treacherously to jagged peaks, and turbulence that was almost too much for men with hundreds of flying hours' experience. Hundreds of reports, many of them conflicting, poured in. Ground parties, following reports given in good faith, tramped weary miles through dense bush searching for the missing plane. Prophetically accurate would appear to have been the message from three deerstalkers who, on returning from the densely wooded area near Pokaka, on the western side of Ruapehu, reported hearing an aircraft in heavy cloud last Saturday. They said it was near the mountain and that its motors appeared to cut out suddenly.