Fears held for four in light plane

Press, 27 February 1984, Page 1

Fears held for four in light plane

PA Auckland The search for four Wanganui persons missing in a light aircraft since yesterday morning will continue at dawn today. The police hold fears for the safety of a young woman pilot and three well known Wanganui businessmen, who were last heard of at 8.57 a.m. yesterday about 30 kilometres south of Ardmore.

There had been no sign of the single-engine plane when the search was called off about 8.20 p.m. yesterday.

The four, in a Wanganui Aero Club Piper Cherokee with the registration letters DIT, are the pilot, Heather Margaret Armstrong, aged 22, a nurse at a home for the elderly, David George Young, aged 38, a self-em-

ployed motor engineer; Graham Ewing Pratt, aged 32, a self-employed dentist; and John Burnett Lockett, aged 37, a self-employed electroplater, all of Wanganui.

Miss Armstrong, a commercial pilot, was flying the three men to Auckland.

It is believed they had chartered the flight to attend the Whenuapai Wings and Wheels Classic at Whenuapai airfield. A helicopter and several light planes will concentreate their search on the Mangatawhiri area southeast of Bombay today.

Many reports said a plane had been sighted in the area.

Forecasts of fog in the area could hamper searchers.

The search will be over some areas searched yesterday by several light aircraft and a Royal New Zealand Air Force Andover. The search and rescue coordinator, Mr D. B. Reed, said that the plane was last heard from at 8.57 a.m., but then faded on radar screens and did not respond to calls.

The weather at the time had not been good, with low cloud and mist. The plane had had enough fuel to last until 11 a.m. The aircraft was not carrying an emergency beacon.

Search and rescue teams are baffled by the mysterious disappearance of the aircraft. It was last heard of just minutes out of Auckland, and was due to land about 9 a.m. The pilot was unsure of her position and wanted position plotting details, said a search spokesman, Sergeant Peter Page, last evening. However, before the information could be sent out, radio contact with the Piper Cherokee was lost. “We think they must have gone behind a hill as contact faded,” Sergeant Page said. “At the same time the radar at Auckland Airport picked up a bleep that we think might have been the plane although this has not yet been confirmed,” he said. There was low cloud cover in the area at the time, but “the pilot sounded confident; there was no sign of panic,” he said. A search was mounted at 10.30 a.m. and three planes searched the area until dusk. “We cannot understand it,” Sergeant Page said. “It is completely mystifying. Some of the planes have gone over the same spot two or three times without finding a trace, but we are still very hopeful of finding them alive.” An appeal to the public to report any sightings brought hundreds of calls, but most

of these proved to be of search planes.

By late evening, the search headquarters had had several “positive sightings” and had narrowed the area down to the Bombay Hills area, about 40km out of Auckland. Farmers in the area have been asked to keep a watch on remote topdressing airstrips in case the small, four-seater plane had been forced to make an emer-

gency landing, Sergeant Page said.

The Wanganui Aero Club’s chief inspector, Mr I. Warmington, said that Miss Armstrong had been completing an instructor’s training course with the club, but this flight was not a training one.

“She was working in her professional capacity as a commercial pilot on a charter flight," he said.