Police search for hang-glider pilot

Press, 10 January 1983, Page 2

Police search for hang-glider pilot

PA Auckland Christchurch holidaymaker. Mr Ross McDermott, believes he saw the last dramatic moments of a hang-glider pilot s flight before the craft possibly ditched in the sea off Motuihe Island on Saturday. Mr McDermott had been watching the area with a binocular for a two-masted boat he had seen on its side off Bucklands Beach several days before. “I saw this ochre-coloured glider-sail swoop down, I watched it for a couple of minutes and it seemed to do some fairly violent aerobatics. It seemed to swoop in front of some bush and then it disappeared,” he said. The glider had flown down at a fairly steep angle, and he had watched for several more minutes for it to reappear. Mr McDermott, said.

“I thought that if someone was in trouble he would be half-way down the channel pretty quickly in the wind.”

Mr McDermott called the Auckland police who sent out the launch Deodar and a fixed-wing aircraft to search the area. The Aucklahd coast guard also sent two boats to the scene. Senior-Sergeant K. Allison, of the Auckland police, said later that the boat had searched for about two hours, but had found no trace of the pilot or his glider. Mr McDermott said that it had been impossible to tell whether the glider had gone down on land or sea.