Plane wreck found

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 1

Plane wreck found

PA Hastings Two bodies were found near the wreckage of a single-engine Grumman Cheetah aircraft in the Kaimanawa Ranges, central North Island, yesterday."

The Turangi police reported that at 4.30 p.m. searchers in a a private helicopter saw the wreckage near the Pillars of Hercules in the range. Two policemen were flown in by helicopter from Taupo but the site was very steep and rugged, making it inaccessible by helicopter. Searchers climbed for about 30 minutes before they reached the site. Two bodies have been confirmed by the police but a third ha'd not been found last evening. The plane was carrying the managing director of Philips Electrical Industries, Mr Hugo Schut, aged 53, and Ms Janeane Robinson, aged 28, and was flown by Mr Paul Taylor, aged 31. The police said that with the impact of the crash it was not thought that any person would have survived. Darkness precluded any further search. The police, with a special Turangi Search and Rescue team, will go back to the site at dawn today. • , Identification of the two bodies found was not made by the police last evening. The Tauranga police have called off the search for a Mount Maunganui man, Desmond John Keen, aged 30, after failing to find any more traces of the missing 5m launch he was in. Mr Keen failed to return from a fishing trip near Motiti Island on October 16, but the spare fuel tank belonging to the boat was found washed ashore near Matata on Friday. Further report, page 8