Four killed in plane crash near Wanaka

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34048, 12 January 1976, Page 1

Four killed in plane crash near Wanaka

Four people were killed when a light plane plunged into a rugged mountain valley near Lake kanaka yesterday afternoon.

The bodies of two men and two women were found in the tangled wreckage of a Cessna aircraft as darkness fell vesterdav.

There were no survivors, and the police were still trying late last evening to establish the identities of the crash victims.

Their names were not expected to be known until after the bodies had been

• flown out by helicopter at , first light today. The Cessna took off from Wanaka about mid-day yesterday on a scenic flight. It was reported missing late in the afternoon, but the ensuing search was hampered by the apparent lack of a flight plan. The wreckage of the miss-

ing plane was finally spotted by a searching aircraft at 6.45 p.m. It was found at an altitude of about 4000 ft in the remote Alpha Bum Valley, 15 miles west of the Wanaka township. Soon after a private helicopter—carrying a doctor and policemen—took off from Queenstown for the crash site. The helicopter crew found four bodies, but was unable to recover them before darkness fell. Wreckage was spread over a wide area and it appeared that the occupants of the plane had died instantly, said the search controller. Inspector B. F. Hodge, of the Dunedin police. The four bodies would be brought out at first light today by a larger helicopter, he said.