LOST CONTROL AND CRASHED IN LAKE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30939, 21 December 1965, Page 3

LOST CONTROL AND CRASHED IN LAKE

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, Dec. 20. The crash of a Cessna float plane on Lake Shirley, Fiordland, on March 4, was caused by loss of control at a height insufficient for recovery to be effected before the aircraft hit the water, the Chief Inspector of Accidents, Wing Commander O. J. O’Brien, says in his report on the accident.

The pilot and one of two passengers in the aircraft died in the crash. Wing Commander O’Brien says the reason for the loss of control had not been established. Other conclusions reached were that for reasons not established the pilot, Alan Jack Nicholas, aged 41, elected to make a turn within the confines of the lake soon after take-off. During the turn, loss of control occurred and the aircraft dived into the lake.

Wing Commander O’Brien also says Mr Nicholas held a valid commercial pilot licence, was considerably experienced and was familiar with flying conditions in the area. The aircraft was flying under a valid certificate of airworthiness and maintenance release. “Safety of an aircraft and its occupants is the sole responsibility of the pilot and it must be stressed firmly that Nicholas may have been confronted with a situation which, in his own opinion, fully justified making a turn in preference to encountering some hazard such as adverse cloud conditions . . .’* Wing Commander O'Brien says. He also says the rescue of the seriously injured survivor was made possible “only by a commendable feat of airmanship on the part of a pilot of New Zealand Tourist Air Travel, Ltd, who alighted on the lake at dusk and in hostile weather. “The. survivor had shown great fortitude in clinging to a partially submerged float for some six hours and had he not been rescued would not have survived the night”