LIGHT AIRCRAFT MISSING

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25328, 30 October 1947, Page 6

LIGHT AIRCRAFT MISSING

PROCTOR OVERDUE AT QUEENSTOWN SEARCH TO BE MADE THIS MORNING A Percival Proctor aircraft belonging to Southern Scenic Air Trips, Ltd., which left on a flight froin Queenstown to Big Bay on the West Coast and back yesterday, has been listed as missing. A search will be made by an air-sea rescue Hudson of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, which will take off from Wigram at 5.15 a.m. to-day. « The aircraft, which was piloted by Mr C. W. Hewitt, left Queenstown at 7.30 o’clock yesterday morning to bring a load of whitebait from Big Bay. It was scheduled to arrive back at base about 12.30 p.m., but no news has since been received of it, and last evening police messages seeking information from persons who saw or heard it during the day were broadcast.

The Proctor is painted silver and carries the registration letters ZKAPG in blue on the wings and fuselage. It was bought by the company recently, and was flown from Harewood to Queenstown by. Mr Hewitt about two weeks ago. It is a single engined machine which is not equipped with radio. An experienced pilot, Mr Hewitt is familiar with flying conditions in the region. As there is no radio or telephone communication between Big Bay and Queenstown or between Big Bay and the West Coast centres, it is not known whether the aircraft landed on the Coast, and if it djd, whether it took off again., It is possible that a mechanical defect delayed the pilot at Big Bay until it was too late to take off, or that the aircraft became bogged in the sand. Flying conditions were good when it took off from Queenstown and the weather reports for the area were fair. Mr F. J. Lucas, of Southern, Scenic Air Trips, Ltd., said last evening that he was not unduly worried about the movements of the Proctor. High tides were running at Big Bay at present, and it was possible that the aircraft had come to rest in soft sand.

Mr H. Wigley arrived at Queenstown by air from Timaru yesterday, and he may take a mechanic to Big Bay early this morning. Search aircraft will also be dispatched from Taieri. The R.N.Z.A.F. Hudson will fly direct to Big Bay in the morning, and if the Proctor is not there, a search will be made over the route usually followed by the company’s aircraft. Mr Hewitt has had a bad run of luck in the last few months. A Proctor with which he started the whitebait service from the Coast to Taieri was damaged on landing at Queenstown some time ago, and is still under repair in the shops of Air Work, Ltd., at Harewood. On September 30, while flying an Auster aircraft on the whitebait ’ run. he struck a downdraught which caused him to make a forced landing in the Lammerlaw ranges, about 45 miles from Dunedin. This machine is also being repaired at Harewood.