Weather hits search for lost aircraft

Press, 18 February 1980, Page 1

Weather hits search for lost aircraft

PA Napier Bad weather hampered a search yesterday for a Cessna 204 single-engine aircraft in the Kaweka Range, 80km north-west of Napier. The aircraft left New Plymouth on Saturday with two 1 young women passengers for a flight to Napier.. The police have declined to release the women’s names. ; ■ The Cessna left New Ply# mouth at 5 p,m. on Saturday but there has been no contact with it since. An aircraft was heard in the air about 6 p.m. at Kuripapango, in the foothills of the Kdweka Ranges on the Napier-Taihape route. A search was initiated on Saturday evening by the

regional co-ordinating centre of the Search and Rescue Organisation at Wellington, but no trace of the aircraft was found. Senior-Sergeant M. L. Cull, of the Napier police, said that he had been told to organise a search in the Kuripapango area, and this had been done on the ground by farmers and forestry staff. The Napier Aero Club had several aircraft in the area yesterday and a helicopter flew over the rugged Kaweka Range several times without seeing the missing plane. “Visibility in the area is very poor because of low cloud and rain,” said Senior-Sergeant Cull. “We had Search and Rescue teams on standby at Napier.”