SMALL AIRCRAFT MISSING

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25205, 9 June 1947, Page 6

SMALL AIRCRAFT MISSING

—• — w FLIGHT TO TAUPO FROM HASTINGS INTENSIVE AIR SEARCH CONDUCTED (P.A.) HASTINGS, June 8. An intensive aerial search within the limits permitted by the weather was unsuccessfully conducted yesterday and to-day by six aircraft for John Dennis Tacon, aged 23, who left the Hawke’s Bay and East Coast Aero Club’s aerodrome at Hastings at 8 a.m. yesterday for Taupo in a Tiger Moth, and who failed to arrive at his destination. A machine which is believed to be that piloted by Tacon was reported flying in misty weather over the Reporoa district, about 20 miles north olg. Taupo, about 11 a.m. yesterday. When rt left Hastings, the aircraft had about three hours’ supply of petrol, and therefore could not have remained airborne for long after it was reported at Reporoa. The scorch operations to-day were centred mainly in that area, which ii heavily wooded for the most part. The searching aeroplanes comprise two from the Hawke’s Bay and East Coast Aero Club, one from the Central Hawke’s Bay Aero Club, one owned by the Public Works Department, one Royal New Zealand Air Force Harvard from New Plymouth, and the New Zealand Aerial Mapping Company’s Beechcraft. Yesterday and to-day the weather for flying was not good, the ceiling being low, particularly in the hm areas. Conditions became so bad lh» afternoon that the search was abandoned, but it will be resumed to-mnr-row. \ "Lateer aircraft which can be usefl for an extensive search over rougn country are standing by at vanoui vantage points, and air-sea rescue craft are waiting at Ohakea for ■ clearance in the weather. No land parties are yet operating. Tscon is a brother of Wing Commander W. Tacon, officer in chartf of the King’s Flight. His mother and father are Mr and Mrs E. R. Tac ®; of Hastings. He served as an air gunner during the war.