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Post by raymond on Jun 30, 2013 9:30:41 GMT 12
Gault at controls for documentary about air tragedy
SARAH HARVEY
Last updated 05:00 30/06/2013
From the Stuff website
NICOLE GOURLEY/ Fairfax NZ
Simon Gault stands proudly by his Thunder Mustang.
We're more used to seeing him in the hot-headed kitchens of MasterChef, but in his precious spare time, celebrity chef Simon Gault cameos as a daredevil aerobatic pilot.
He has even represented New Zealand in aerobatics and still flies a Thunder Mustang at air shows.
It was this passion for flying - which started with glider flying at Drury, north of Auckland, in his teenage years - that led to an invitation to front a documentary about the 1963 Kaimai plane crash, the deadliest on New Zealand soil. It is the 50th anniversary of the crash on Wednesday.
Gault spent weeks interviewing relatives of some of the 23 people who died when the DC-3 crashed into a steep ravine in the Kaimai Ranges, which separate the Waikato and the Bay of Plenty.
A Court of Inquiry found the plane was caught in unexpectedly bad weather, meaning the crew were likely unaware of their location. The plane was then caught by a down draught described as too turbulent for the pilot to climb out of, and the DC-3 slammed into a ridge on Mt Ngatamahinerua.
During his research for the show, Gault learnt he had connections to the crash: he knew the pilot who flew the aircraft the flight before it crashed.
"It was quite poignant with my involvement with flying gliders and with flying over that bit of dirt where it crashed."
During the documentary, Gault is shown walking to the crash site, a notoriously rugged piece of terrain - an experience he said "nearly killed me".
"The guide said, ‘Are you an experienced tramper?' "
Gault found meeting the family of the victims emotional.
"It brought everything home. You just got attached to everybody that you met.
"I learnt about the people on the aeroplane and how the forecast was wrong. They didn't know where they were. It was really unfortunate."
He said he loved making the programme, as it was a "document of history in New Zealand".
"I'm about to have a kid and I would like her to watch it. I think it's important."
His father, Bryan Gault, a former airforce pilot, also stars in the documentary, having worked with the original accident investigator.
The Descent From Disaster series starts on TV One on July 16. The Kaimai crash episode will screen on July 23.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 23, 2013 22:40:35 GMT 12
This was excellent. A very well made, sympathetic and informative documentary.
Well done to Simon and Bryan Gault, and all those involved in the making of it.
I loved the scenes with the NAC-painted DC-3 on the Whenuapai tarmac, very well done. And greta to see so many key people interviewed, and the sad stories told.
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Post by Gary. on Jul 24, 2013 7:31:33 GMT 12
Yep, very well made, i liked the way they overlaid the old photographs with new shots, that seemed to make things appear even more real and timeless.....Anton Oliver did a great job on the previous eppisode about the train accident too i thought.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 24, 2013 10:17:55 GMT 12
That photo overlay technique was certainly effective, I agree. It was interesting how little the landscape had changed in fifty years.
I missed the first episode. I might have to watch it on On Demand.
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Post by flyjoe180 on Jul 24, 2013 14:51:14 GMT 12
I enjoyed the informative Kaimai crash documentary, nicely made and relevant. Simon makes a great presenter.
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Post by Gary. on Jul 24, 2013 19:46:12 GMT 12
That photo overlay technique was certainly effective, I agree. It was interesting how little the landscape had changed in fifty years. I missed the first episode. I might have to watch it on On Demand. Yeah Dave, Its worth a look, they did the same photo overlay thing alot in the train accident eppisode, and all that is now there is a plain old railway embankment, then they would cross over to the same area in the 43 crash.......just total carnage. Amazing. I was impressed with Anton, he seemed very humble, he would call round to interview those affected by the crash, sit down with them, have a cup of tea, and just listen, let them tell the story. Looks like it will be a good series, i think Andrew Fagan will be in one eppisode on a ship wreck, that will be interesting as i have read about some of his mad solo sailing adventures........the sea is a nasty place. |
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Post by TS on Jul 24, 2013 21:58:06 GMT 12
Finally got to watch this tonight very well done also loved the overlays.  But there appears to be a couple of posts missing from this afternoon  ??  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 24, 2013 22:04:32 GMT 12
Yes, because you caused a fuss and I thought it wasn't worth the hassle so I removed them, despite the fact 90% of kiwis would agree with me.
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Post by alexjc on Jul 26, 2013 4:15:08 GMT 12
 What a well thought out and respectful documentary. Very much liked the Photo overlays, a great orientation technique. Especially for me fifty years later...Horrific recalling of one of the families visiting the crash site three weeks after, the sister say there were still remains?...How they got in there is truly amazing considering the rescue teams and people today finding it difficult to get in (and so it should be). The saddest view is the long shot of the wreck on the ridge and Tauranga just beyond...That's when it hits you
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Post by 11SQNLDR on Jul 26, 2013 7:27:51 GMT 12
Just finished watching this on the iPad (love the TVNZ On Demand app...)
A fantastic doco, I learned a good deal about the tragedy and Simon did a fantastic job presenting it.
So far a superb series, this s exactly what NZ On Air money should be used for!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 26, 2013 8:59:05 GMT 12
Alex, I'm afraid the documentary didn't reflect one aspect, and that is it wasn't that difficult to get into the crash site, the difficulty allegedly came in poor leadership among those heading the rescue efforts. It was something like three days between the crash and rescuers getting to the site, during which time local farmers who knew the land well and also hunters and bushmen who were used to the terrain were repeatedly turned down in their request to get in there and see if they could help. In the end some of them ignored the police and went in anyway as they felt the people in charge were sitting on their hands while injured people may need help. I know this because one of the hunters who went in was my father. He hiked up with no real trouble at all on the third day and arrived just after the helicopter had dropped people in there. He also took his camera and some of his photos appear in Richard Waugh's book on NAC.
Something else that is a puzzle, Dad told me that years later he was somewhere and he met a women who was involved in the centre of the rescue efforts, and she told Dad that as well as the person mentioned who had survived for a short while and died by the crash site, that a second person, a lady I think, had also survived and had walked through the bush right down to the farm fenceline, where she collapsed and died. Her body wasn't found till some time after, and this woman told Dad the police hushed it up because they knew if they'd not sat around for three days they could probably have saved her. I'd love to know if this is true, but I doubt they'll be letting these facts out any time soon if it is.
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Post by alexjc on Jul 27, 2013 5:36:22 GMT 12
Interesting...Fifty years later, things are so more transparent. Today's media is far more invasive, just look at Pike River as example. Back in 1963, Television had barely arrived, as we saw, helicopters were rare and the authorities WERE the final Law of the land. You never questioned the police...let alone the government - a different time.
I wonder if the Official Information Act would release what would be a travesty of a cover up if that woman's story was true. As for access, I think the 'difficult terrain' would be more to do with weather...and today, preventing fossickers from picking at the wreckage. Apparently for some years, in the right sun conditions, you could still see light reflecting off the remains? Your father must have taken some pretty gruesome pictures amongst others that day if the recall of the rescue team was anything to go by.
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Post by The Red Baron on Jul 27, 2013 17:48:21 GMT 12
Correct...we lived not along way from the crash site further towards Matamata,the sun used to shine off the wreckage in the afternoons like a giant mirror for many years.One of the reasons they dynamited place to cover it was to stop that,it attracted to many sightseers to the sight.
I heard a organisation higher than the police was involved in the search and recovery,and that certaianally there were survivors.
Another person who was there said there were so many different organisations there no one knew who was in charge.
Local pig hunters of the time would have been up there like a shot.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 29, 2013 11:57:48 GMT 12
My Dad was careful not to take gruesome shots. A companion however who was with him wasn't as discreet, and pissed of the cops by photographing more intrusively. A cop grabbed his camera, opened the back and pulled out the expensive coloured film, exposing it and ruining the shots. Dad only had b&w film and was less obtrusive, so his shots survived. Unlike today he never raced off to the media with his shots. Dad was never a rubber necker or opportunist. The shots that Richard Waugh published were done after Dad had died, it was me and Mum who decided to offer them to Richard.
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skyman
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 82 
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Post by skyman on Jul 29, 2013 14:27:27 GMT 12
Posted by Skyman
I was halfway through my first year in the RNZAF when the DC-3 crashed in July 1963 and in December while on leave I climbed with my father to the top of Thompsons Track from the Matamata side and then up to the top of Mt Ngatamahinerua and down to the crash site. There were signs indicating the way up a rough track and indications there had been more than a few sightseers at the crash site. I took several black and white photos of the scene which are now in my album. The remains of a once proud DC-3 were a very sobering sight, but as a teenager I never really appreciated the real tragedy of it. It was only later in life that it hit home how tragic this accident really was and the excellent TV documentary brought it all back to me.
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?? 
What a well thought out and respectful documentary.
