CRASH IN 1956

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 12

CRASH IN 1956

Plahe Found, No Trace Of Pilot ] (New Zealana Press Association) AUCKLAND. May 15. | A makeshift bed of rubber r cushions from plane seats was! found by a police party which ] went into the bush today at ; Raupunga. south of Wairoa, following the discovery of a w recked | aircraft. The party, which returned to Wairoa tonight, v also found the aircraft’s medical chest which had been hacked open with a tomahawk. There was no sign of the pilot. The aircraft, a single-engine Taylorcraft monoplane piloted by . its owner, Mr A. N. Clark, ofi Thames, went missing on a flight i from Rotorua to Wairoa on 1 November 23. 1956. It was found I by Mr Victor Keen, manager of a ] logging company, late on Thurs-I day afternoon, in bushy country about five miles along a road ati'l I the back of Waireka Station, south |; of Mohaka. Nearby, he found[ the aircraft’s logbook and other ; papers which had been ruined by] rain. Sergeant W T. Pender, of rheji Wairoa police, two constables and '■< other searchers tramped through !< dense bush to the aircraft. On his return. Sergeant Pender J said: “We found the seats under i some fern about 18 yards from!’ ]the plane, evidently to form a sort [1 of bed. The medical chest wash smashed open with the axe. and was in a cave five yards away H from the bed Fifty yards further away, a pair < of sunglasses in a case was found 5 The aircraft was not badlv * damaged. There was a hole in ’ the fuselage and one wing and the • propeller were bent When the 1 plane went migsing it was thought to have crashed in the rugged ’ heavily-forested Urewera country 1 and Air Force planes searched that area for several days 1 Tomorrow morning, another party will leave for the vicinity to * continue the search for traces of ’ Mr Clark. 1