UPTURNED BOAT SEEN FROM AIR

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28802, 24 January 1959, Page 11

UPTURNED BOAT SEEN FROM AIR

Search Being Made In Cook Strait

(New Zealand, Press Association) BLENHEIM, January 23. The crew of a Straits Air Freight Express Bristol freighter, returning to Blenheim from its first trip to Paraparaumu about 7.45 this morning, sighted an upturned boat in Cook Strait, about four miles south-east of the entrance to Tory Channel. The pilot of the aircraft, Captain K. A. Beattie, who had with him First Officer J. Curley, flew low and made two circuits over the drifting craft, which was almost completely submerged, to see if there was anybody clinging to it They saw nothing. Launch Seaching The pilot, advised Wellington control by radio and the police were alerted. Constable G. Hogg and Constable R. Mitchell, of Picton, have gone via the new road to Port Underwood to join a Picton fishing boat owned by Mr O. McManaway, which is operating in Cloudy Bay. The launch will be guided by radio to the position of the derelict by the harbourmaster at Picton, who will be kept informed of the whereabouts of the craft by the pilots of freight and passenger aircraft crossing the strait. The upturned boat is believed to be a dinghy which was swamped off Mana Island on Monday afternoon, according to a Wellington Press Association message. Laurence Edward Burke, aged 19, of Te Pene avenue, Titahi Bay, was drowned in the incident. No trace has yet been found of the body, but the Wellington police are continuing the search.