Friends help in plane search

Press, 2 August 1983, Page 1

Friends help in plane search

Two close friends of the missing Ruapehu ski-shop owner, Mr Roy Turner, yesterday joined Air Force searchers in the hunt for Mr Turner and his family in the Southern Alps. Mr Marshall Gebbie, managing director of the alpine resort on Mount Ruapehu, and Mr Leon Dense, a farmer, flew down to Lake Tekapo when they heard that the Cessna 172 Mr Turner was flying from Lake Tekapo to Fox Glacier across the Alps had disappeared on Saturday.

Both believe that Mr Turner was such a skilled and careful flyer that it was unlikely his plane would have gone out of control and crashed. They believe that if he got into difficulties Mr Turner would have been able to stall-land his aircraft.

Yesterday they joined nine other helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft scouring

some 900,000 ha of valleys and mountains in the area where he is missing. By dark last evening no sign had been found of Mr Turner’s plane. Two parties that went on foot into bush country near Okarito were unable to cover their area to their satisfaction and three parties will go into the area again at dawn today. A local resident reported hearing a noise and seeing smoke on Saturday afternoon, about the time Mr Turner might have been flying there. The Cessna had a manually-worked locator beacon. No signal has been received from it.

Mr Turner, who is in his 50s, was flying with his wife, Anne, aged 33, and their children, Kim, aged six, and Guy, aged four.

Mr Turner runs New Zealand’s biggest ski hire business and is an identity in the Ruapehu area. He came

to New Zealand after World War II and after doing odd jobs throughout the country, established and built up his business in the mid--19605.

He has been a pilot for 30 years. His wife is also a pilot. Their plane was carrying a wide range of alpine wear and thermal blankets.

The weather, which had been very bad on Saturday night and Sunday, began to clear yesterday. It is forecast to improve today. Flight Lieutenant Don Haggitt, at the rescue coordination centre in Christchurch, said that if the cloud lifted sufficiently today search aircraft would probably concentrate on the tops of the passes that Mr Turner might have flown across.

The family was on a combined business and holiday trip. They were to have met friends at Fox Glacier.