PLANE NOT YET FOUND

Press, 19 July 1979, Page 1

PLANE NOT YET FOUND

By PETER COMER

Reports from native villagers yesterday raised the hopes of searchers looking for the Christchurch family of six whose plane has been missing in the mountains of northern Papua New Guinea since Monday. Inhabitants of a remote mountain village said they had heard an aircraft circle in heavy rain and cloud, and then a crash, but poor weather yesterday prevented search-and-rescue helicopters from reaching the area.

The missing plane, a single-engine Cessna 206, was carrying a Christchurch missionary, Mr Robert Wilkinson, aged 42; his wife, Lois, aged 41; and their four young children, Stuart, II; Marcia, nine; Michelle, seven; and Glenn, two months.

Two other men and the pilot were also aboard the aircraft, which was returning from an Open Brethren Church conference at Anguganak to the coastal mission town of Aitape, where the Wilkinson family lived. Signals from the plane’s emergency locator beacon stopped yesterday, and concern for the nine missing people was growing.

“We are especially worried about the children. Even if they survived the crash, the continuous rain will be a problem,” said Mr Bert Stevens from the church’s hostel at Wewak, the nearest town to Anguganak, last evening. He said that pilots of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship, which owns the missing plane, would continue searching at least until Saturday. “We are certainly not giving up, but the weather is so bad that every passing hour makes it less likely that they will be found alive,” said Mr Stevens.

In the tall, thick rain forest the wreckage of a crashed aircraft could easily be completely concealed from the air, he said.

Late last evening, officials were still waiting to hear from a party of European teachers from a Roman Catholic school settlement who thought they heard the missing plane, and went to look for it.

Weather permitting, nine light aircraft, two helicopters, and several ground parties will resume the search at first light today.