Topdressing plane crashes

Press, 29 March 1979, Page 2

Topdressing plane crashes

PA Dunedin A laden topdressmg aircraft nosedived into the ground near a heavily builtup area at Fairfield, 10km south of Dunedin, yesterday morning.

The pilot, Mr T. Frederickson, aged 26, jettisoned part of his load on to Flower Street as he struggled to gain height, about 7 a.m. He banked his Fletcher aircraft a scant 50m from one house before hitting a steel guyrope on a power

pole and plunging into thick gorse.

By the time fire engines and an ambulance arrived at the crash scene, residents had hacked a path through the gorse to the wreckage and Mr Frederickson was cut from the mangled cabin and taken to the Dunedin Hospital. He suffered multiple fractures to the lower limbs. His condition last evening was reported as serious. The aircraft was broken into several pieces by the impact. The main section of the

fuselage lay at right angles to the tail section, with one wing attached. The other wing lay alongside and the tail fins were about 10m further back. Part of the steel guyrope which the plane struck were still entangled in the port wing. The wreckage will be guarded by a police patrol until it has been inspected by the Inspector of Air Accidents. The first man to arrive at the scene of the accident was Mr R. Seaton.

“I undid the pilot’s safety

belt,” he said. “He obviously could not be moved, and so I rushed back up for an axe to clear a path for the ambulance but by the time I got back others had done the job. “He was shouting out for help. I tried to move hi's arm out of the belt and, he winced in pain, and so I gave that up as a bad job. He wasn’t talking very much, but he was fully conscious all the time. “He didn’t seem to be in pain except when I tried to move him,” Mr Seaton said.