Search for wartime missing aircraft

Press, 16 February 1984, Page 2

Search for wartime missing aircraft

Twelve servicemen from the Royal New Zealand Air Force are carrying out a ground search for a World War II aircraft missing in the Berlins area on the West Coast.

The aircraft, a R.N.Z.A.F. Corsair, went missing on a formation cross-country training flight that left Ardmore Aerodrome, Auckland, on November 11, 1944. After flying over Westport, the formation headed for Christchurch, but the formation leader decided to return to land at Westport after one pilot reported engine problems. The missing aircraft, flown by Pilot

Officer Brian Barstow, was lost from the formation during the turn back to Westport, and it has been suggested that the pilot either lost his bearings in the cloud or through faulty radio equipment did not hear of the change of plans and became disorientated.

A R.N.ZA.F. inquiry at the time found that the loss of the aircraft was caused by the pilot’s inability to remain in formation with his leader while flying in cloud. Searches were made in the days immediately after the loss of the aircraft, and subsequent sightings have

been made, and in some cases disproved.

The R.N.Z.A.F. team doing the present search is combining it with adventurous expedition training. The team entered the Berlins area on Monday and is due out on Sunday. Some of the party are members of the search and rescue team at Woodbourne, where they are all based.

The team went in emptyhanded and was resupplied by a helicopter drop on Tuesday.

The aircraft is one of only eight crashed military aircraft for which wreckage has not been located.