TOUCH-DOWN ON FIELD

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31150, 29 August 1966, Page 1

TOUCH-DOWN ON FIELD

Plane Scatters Footballers

.Vetc Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, August 28. Footballers playing on Victoria Park, Auckland, on Saturday afternoon scattered when a light aircraft made an emergency landing after its engine had failed over Westhaven.

The aeroplane, an Auster belonging to the Aucklanc Aero Club, had been towing an advertising banner over the citv at about 1000 ft.

The pilot, Mr I. N. Butchart. aged 24, of Mount Eden, I said that when the engine i failed he circled Westhaven i once and then dropped the! advertising banner in the boat harbour. “T then looked around for somewhere to land,” he said. “There was a piece of straight road in Ponsonby, and the harbour,, but Victoria Park looked the best bet. “AWFUL NOISE”

“I came over the park once l before landing, making an i awful noise, and I think the* people on the ground knew, what I was going to do,” hei said.

Mr Butchart, one of the aero club’s instructors, touched the Auster down in the middle of the playing fields.

Games were in progress on either side of where he landed and one—an eighth grade; Rugby League match—was, abandoned after the plane' had taxied across the field. ' Mr Butchart said he could not get the flaps right down and landed, faster than he would have liked. "I bounced once and head- 1

■ed for the eastern end of the ground,” he said.

1 “There was virtually no wind w’hich made it a bit more difficult and the brakes were not working very well on the soft ground." The plane rode up a bank which fringes the field and at the last minute Mr Butchart executed a perfect “ground loop” to avoid hitting cars parked on the side of the road.

The plane swung around to halt with its tail only inches from one car and its propeller resting on a small tree. Mr Butchart said he had made three previous emergency landings in his six years of flying but they were not in the heart of the city. The assistant groundkeeper, Mr T. Wares, said the two centre fields where the plane first touched were empty but games were in progress on adjoining fields. “He bounced once, about 10 feet, and then did a beautiful landing," said Mr Wares. ’ “The pilot deserves a medal or something." he said. “It was a great piece of landing.” The plane was not dam aged. The wings were later removed and it was taken back to Ardmore Aerodrome by truck. v The cause of the engine failure is not yet known. The advertising banner has been recovered from the Westhaven boat harbour.