Plane Dived Into Ground

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30711, 29 March 1965, Page 1

Plane Dived Into Ground

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 28. Four men were killed when a light aircraft crashed on a demonstration flight at Waharoa, near Matamata. on Saturday morning. Those killed were: Lloyd Wilson Seabrook, aged 31, single, a company director, of Orakei road, Auckland James Roland Meredith, aged 32, married, an electri-

cian, of Waihou, near Te Aroha. Gary Alexander Hunger, aged 24, married, a farmer, of Springdale, Waitoa.

Robert Andrew Connor, aged 48. married, with three children, a radio technician, of Station road, Matamata. When the wreck was found Mr Meredith was in the pilot’s seat and Mr Seabrook in the co-pilot’s seat, but it is not known who was in control of the plane at the time of the crash. Eye-witnesses said the plane, a four-seater Rallye Commodore, hurtled nose first into the ground and the propeller was not visible. The plane crashed on the

200-acre dairy farm of Mr J. Barugh close to the boundary fence of another farm owned by Mr J. W. Guest, at 11.39 a.m. Mr Guest’s son, Mr B. W. Guest, a Waikato Rugby representative, was first at the scene.

He said he heard the engine of the plane missing and looked up and saw the plane going into a spin. “I saw it spinning round,” he said. “Then it dived under full power towards the ground.”

When Mr Guest reached the plane the bodies of the occupants were still in the badly-smashed cockpit. “They must have been killed instantly,” said Mr Guest.

Mr Barugh said he was able to see the plane until it was within 30 feet of the ground. It dived almost vertically. The Rallye Commodore is a French aircraft and the only one of its type in New Zealand. It is owned by Seabrook Fowlds, Ltd., and had been flown to Waharoa for demonstration purposes a few hours before the accident.