Bad Weather Forces Down Four Light Aircraft

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31379, 26 May 1967, Page 1

Bad Weather Forces Down Four Light Aircraft

(New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, May 25. Four light aircraft made emergency landings at Raglan and Kawhia late this morning after bad weather interfered with their flight from Auckland to Christchurch.

One of the planes—a Cessna 150—flipped on to its back when landing on the beach near Kawhia. The pilot, Mr T. Hornby, escaped injury.

The three other aircraft landed safely—two on the same beach a few miles north of Kawhia harbour and the other at Raglan. These were Piper aircraft. Soft Patch The leader of the flight, Mr J. Bergman, said the safest thing to do in the driving rain

and low cloud was to land on the beach. It was just unfortunate that the Cessna had

overturned; it had a tricycle undercarriage and struck a soft patch. “I made the decision to land because of the weather. It’s quite a usual thing to do in bad weather to wait for an improvement,” Mr Bergman said. He said the Cessna was doing about 25 m.p.h. when the front wheel dug in the sand. It had just about enough impetus to turn over. The propeller was bent and the port wing was slightly damaged. Two of the accompanying aircraft landed safely on the beach and Mr Bergman flew

to Raglan before returning to pick up the pilot of the crashed aircraft. After about an hour on the beach the three Pipers returned to Ardmore aerodrome.

A' helicopter from Wanganui moved the damaged plane closer to Kawhia where it will be picked up tomorrow by road and returned to Ardmore for repairs. A radio message, sent from the aircraft just before they made the emergency landing, was picked up by an N.A.C. plane en route from New Plymouth to Auckland. The N.A.C. aircraft passed the information on to Auckland and the search and rescue organisation was informed.