Inquest on plane crash deaths

Press, 13 July 1984, Page 9

Inquest on plane crash deaths

PA Auckland Four persons from Wanganui died from multiple injuries when their light aircraft crashed in the Hunua Ranges on February 26, the Auckland Coroner, Mr A. D. Copeland, has found at an inquest. The pilot, Heather Margaret Armstrong, a nurse, aged 22; David George Young, a motor engineer, aged 38; Graham Ewing Pratt, a dentist, aged 32; and John Barnett Lockett, an electro-plater, aged 37, were in a Piper Cherokee which disappeared between Wanganui and Ardmore. A pig hunter found wreckage of the aircraft in the Hunuas on May 26. After evidence yesterday by the police, the Coroner said, “I would like to make it clear it is not the purpose of this Court to establish the cause of the crash, The purpose is to the

identities of the deceased.” He said all four bodies had been identified through dental records. Sergeant Roland Kelly read evidence submitted by Mr Thomas Armstrong, of Wanganui, the father of Heather Armstrong, to the effect that his daughter had had three years flying experience throughout New Zealand and held private and commercial licences. On the morning of February 26 she had been “quite excited” about a charter trip in which she would take three men to Ardmore to attend a Wings and Wheels display at Hobsonville. The police search and rescue co-ordinator for the Auckland district, Inspector Barry Wallace, told the inquest that there was fog and light rain over the Hunuas the day the aircraft had disappeared. A radio call the

aircraft to an air traffic controller at Auckland sought radar assistance, but contact was lost. The last report indicated the aircraft was 42km from Auckland Airport, the Court was told. Mr Wallace said the air and ground search then begun was the most intensive of its type ever conducted from the Auckland regional search centre. Wanganui people had also spent more than $30,000 continuing a private aerial search. Mr Wallace said that the day after the wreckage was found by a hunter, a search and rescue squad had walked into the crash site and found the fuselage lodged among trees at the top of a ridge. The left wing lay 20 metres away. He said the aircraft was virtually invisible from the air.