‘I expected to die—twice’

Press, 19 February 1979, Page 1

‘I expected to die—twice’

PA Auckland One of the four persons on board the Air New Zealand Friendship aircraft that crashed into the Manukau Harbour on Saturday remembers expecting to die — twice. “I did not expect to survive the impact,’ ’said Mr S. J. Bird, an Air New Zealand ground engineer who, with the first officer. Mr B. R M. Moran, lived through a crash that tore the aircraft apart and claimed the lives of their two colleagues. “Once we were down and I realised I was all right I did not expect to get out,” he said. “There was such a gush of water.” An emergency helicopter service has been suggested as a backup to the troubleprone Auckland Airport rescue hovercraft. The hovercraft is still undergoing an overhaul and was unavailable for the Friendship crash. The chairman of the Auckland Regional Authority's Airport committee (Mr J. L. King) said the hovercraft was now getting old and was outdated. An arrangement could be made with a private helicopter firm to have a machine available for any type of emergency in the region. On its final approach, the aircraft ran into a heavy rain squall, part of the bad weather that gave Auckland its worst drenching in 43 years. Visibility was officially described as “restricted.” As the control tower waited for the Friendship to emerge from the rain squall and touch down the Boeing crew of Flight 495 to Christchurch almost at the end of the runway gave the alert by radio. Air traffic controllers then located the tail in the water. Local-body representatives, A.R.A. officials, and other interested parties will discuss a rescue-

helicopter service today at a meeting scheduled before Saturday’s accident. However, the Director of Civil Aviation (Captain E. T. Kippenberger) said from Wellington that the hovercraft was still considered to be the best type of rescue craft at Auckland Airport. A helicopter would be of little use if an aircraft full of passengers crashed and had to be rescued, he said . Commenting on the hovercraft’s poor reliability, Captain Kippenburger said he hoped the extensive overhaul would solve all the problems. The hovercraft was bought by the authority and the Government in 1969 for $209,000. Since then it has spent many months out of service, including one five-month period in 1977. Two rubber inflatable Zodiac boats were used by rescuers on Saturday. Mr Bird’s fate was better than he originally expected. “I think the first officer, Mr Moran, must have opened his emergency exit window and a lot of the water was pouring in there,” said Mr Bird. “I made for the spot where the water was coming in and found that someone else was doing the same thing.” Mr Bird said he was kicking to get through the exit but could get only halfwav through. Then he felt Mr Moran give him “quite a wrench.” From then the two shocked and exhausted mer could only support themselves on the tip of the aircraft fuselage for the 15 minutes that it took for the airport emergency services to reach them. “We were just hanging there hoping like hell that the other fellows would also appear,” said Mr Bird. The dead men were

Captain Anthony John Perry Circuitt, aged 38, of Lawrence Crescent, Manurewa, who is survived by his wife, three daughters, and a son, all of school age; and John Michael Forbes, aged 33, single, of Mount Eden Road. Mr Circuitt was sitting in the cockpit of the Friendship when the accident occurred, alongside

Mr Moran, with Mr Bird sitting close to the cabin area. Mr Forbes was sitting at the rear of the aircraft. It was not until about three hours and a half after the crash that the Navy divers were able to free the bodv of the captain. Mr Forbes’s body was found later on Saturday night. “I felt so bad about my

mates not getting out,” said Mr Bird yesterday. “It made things so much worse.” Mr Bird has made only two similar trips in the last three years that he has worked for Air New Zealand, but Saturday’s crash does not seem to have changed his mind about flying. “Flying is pretty safe,” he said. “You have to remember that we were in

extreme weather. What happened was an act of God, if you like, as some people say the Wahine’s sinking was.” Mr Bird said the crash happened so quickly that he could not remember much about it. He would not be drawn on what caused the crash and said the information he had would have to be given to the Civil Aviation investigators into the accident.