Plane identified as Auster

Press, 19 January 1989, Page 4

Plane identified as Auster

By

DAVE WILSON

Aircraft wreckage found in the Oxford area is believed to be that of a known wreck, an R.N.Z.A.F. Auster that crashed in 1959. The wreckage was found in a remote, bushcovered area between Coal Creek and Eyre Creek, near Oxford. After initial suspicions that it could be from an Airspeed Oxford, a wartime trainer, sources at R.N.Z.A.F. Base Wigram were yesterday confident the wreckage was of more recent origin. Squadron Leader Graham Cochran said the

archives indicated the wreckage was that of an Auster observation aircraft that had crashed during Army co-operation manoeuvres in 1959. The Auster, NZ1703, was flown by two Army pilots when it crashed near a training area known as “Little Malaya.” The occupants walked out but the R.N.Z.A.F. abandoned plans to recover the machine. “The crash happened in the days before we had helicopters in the Air Force and the view of the time was that the wreck was too inaccessible to attempt recovery,” Squadron Leader Cochran said.