TRAMPERS FIND ’PLANE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 181, 5 August 1935, Page 7

TRAMPERS FIND ’PLANE

MR. ARMSTRONG’S MACHINE 1 DISCOVERY ON WESTERN SIDE OF RUAHINE RANGES BRIEF SEARCH DISCLOSES NO TRACE OF AVIATOR l Ter r. MS Association. ] HASTINGS, Aug. 4. "S A party of three men looking for a ski-ing ground on tht main Ruahine Range, near Wakarara, this morning, found Mr. Hamish Armstrong’s aeroplane, but there was no sign of Mr. Armstrong’s body. The ground was covered with snow to a depth of three feet, and the three men in the party dug as well as they could manage for a short distance about the machine, but without finding any trace of the body. The ’plane was lying among bush about 100 feet below the top of a ridge 4500 ft. high. It was not extensively damaged. One end of the propeller was broken off and one wing rather badly crumpled. There were no signs of Mr. Armstrong being seriously hurt when the 'plane struck the hillside, and at present it is possible to believe that either he was thrown out of the cockpit and fell some distance away, or else he wandered to seek assistance. j Only bare details of the discovery were available litis evening, as the men who made it have yet to return from the ranges. They were Messrs lan Powell, Richard Bullen and Patrick Wood, all of Napier, and members of the Hutt Valley Tramping Club. They left Napier on Saturday afternoon with the intention of finding a ski-ing ground on the ranges, and apparently had no set purpose of seeking for the ’plane as an incidental object of their trip. They spent the night in a hut on Ruahines to which" they are accustomed to go periodically, and this morning set out to climb to the top of the ridge. Powell was the first to see tJie machine, which was lying among trees covered with snow, at a point on the western side of the range about four or five hours’ tramp from Gardner and Yeoman’s mill at Wakarara, where the mill hands heard the ’plane on the morning of July 21, when Mr. Armstrong left his home at Akitio to fly to Hastings. The point was flown over several times during the search, but owing to the situation in which it landed, also to the suow, poor visibility and its silver and green colouring, it would be almost impossible to see it. It is understood that to-morrow a party on foot, under Captain E’orde, of Tikokiuo, will climb the ranges to search for Mr. | Armstrong.