Pilot guided to safety

Press, 10 May 1979, Page 14

Pilot guided to safety

PA Auckland The pilot of a light aircraft who lost his way over Meremere would “definitely be dead” if he had not kept his head and done all the correct things, his rescuer said. Flying from Wanganui to Ardmore late on Tuesday afternoon, the pilot lost his way just south of his destination. He planned to arrive 15 minutes before dark, but, disorientated, could only fly about trying to get his bearings in low cloud, descending darkness, and with his fuel running out.

The pilot, who does not wish to be identified, called Auckland air traffic control, and reported his plight. He said he believed he was somewhere between Huntly and Waiuku.

The control tower immediately called a New Zealand Air Charter plane which had just left Auck-

land to return to Ardmore on the last leg of an afternoon commercial flight to Great Barrier Island.

The pilot of the second plane, Mr D. J. McMullan, of Auckland, flew south immediately, but ran into low cloud over Tuakau. “It was dark at this stage, we had no hope of sighting him, but by this stage we had established radio contact with him,” he said later. “He told us he was on a private flight and had lost his way. He could not land in a paddock as we suggested, and was in a bit of a spot because his fuel was running short. “We decided to try to climb through the cloud. We were circling about 200 feet, and we climbed to about 5000 feet, but were still in the cloud,” Mr McMulland said. Both guided by radar, the pilots then tried to fly out of the low cloud, and headed east.

“We hit a clear spot over the Firth of Thames. He was right there alongside us.

“This was a great relief. He had been very disorientated in the cloud, and was just circling. We saw him a couple of times but also lost him at other times.

“Then all of a sudden we hit this clear spot, and we could see Thames in the distance. He had only 20 minutes fuel left. We told him to cut his power and glide towards Thames.”

While the two aircraft circled the town the Thames police were hurriedly making attempts to light up the town’s airfield.

Volunteers, cars, and fire service vehicles were called in to shine their headlights on the field, a routine familiar to Thames people for guiding home the Whitianga aircraft

when on ambulance service.

Within a few minutes the two aircraft landed safely at Thames. The second plane left a few minutes later to return to Ardmore. The two occupants later enjoyed their dinner two hours late.

The other aircraft stayed the night at Thames and its pilot travelled to Auckland by car. He left instructions with the police that he did not want his identity revealed. Mr McMullan said he did not know who the pilot had been.

“He was very lucky, but he was also very cool. If he had panicked he would have certainly been killed. I do not know how he managed to get lost, but once he was, he did all the right things. Only because of that did he survive the ordeal.”