LOW FLYING ACCIDENTS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29602, 26 August 1961, Page 16

LOW FLYING ACCIDENTS

‘Need For More Supervision* (N Z. Press Assentation) WELLINGTON. Aug. 25. The number of accidents resulting from completely unwarranted and unauthorised low flying by aero club members gave cause for concern and indicated a need for stricter supervision and discipline within the clubs, said the annual report of the Air Department, tabled in the House of Representatives today. There were 18 aero club flying accidents in the 1960-61 year. Unauthorised low flying caused three, with a pilot and two passengers killed and three other persons seriously injured. Agricultural flying accidents totalled 49. compared with 35 in 1959-60, but 19.5 per cent, more flying was done. Eight pilots were killed and three seriously injured. Two of the fatal accidents resulted from fuel exhaustion, and two from collision with power wires. Two pilots stalled at heights from which they could not recover, one collided with wandering stock on a farm strip and another pilot was killed when a foreign object became lodged in a pulley and severed an elevator cable. In the three cases of serious injury, one pilot stalled and two collided with ridges they could not clear. In the remaining 38 accidents there were 15 ground collisions, seven caused by material failure, six failures to become airborne, and two instances of fuel system mismanagement and contaminated fuel. The rest were associated with take-off and landings on farm strips.