Southland men killed in microlight crash

Press, 10 February 1988, Page 4

Southland men killed in microlight crash

PA Invercargill Two men died when the twin seater microlight they were in crashed into a paddock at Te Tipua, near Mataura, on Sunday. They were Roger John Cross, aged 35, a farmer, of Otama, and Peter William Cunningham, aged 34, a farmer, of Benio, Southland. The pair were on a pleasure flight in the Challenger 2 microlight about 3.50 p.m. when the accident happened. A witness, Mr Len

Clearwater, told the police that he heard the machine go over his house about I.skm from the crash site. “He said it sounded a bit wonky,” Constable Jim Jamieson, of Mataura, said.

“He then got his binoculars and followed it. The thing apparently just dropped out of the sky,” he said. Mr Clearwater could not say how high or fast the microlight was travelling. He saw it go down and then went to the crash site, where he was first at the scene.

A 30m skid mark on the side of the hill running at right angles to the nearby gravel road had been fenced off by the police. The microlight came to rest against a roadside fence. Mr Jamieson said it had not been established where the men took off from or where they were flying to. Both men were experienced microlight pilots. Mr Cunningham was a flying instructor at the Southern Districts Aero Club based at the Gore airstrip.