A couple of crashes - help please

[shamus]

Dave, inflation over the last 20 years or more has probably put them up considerably. The first
ones I bought in the 60s were 5 shillings each if my memory is correct, Can't remember what I paid in the 70s but it wasn't a great deal. An e-mail to the accident inspectors office would probably let
you know. If you get a photo copy I imagine it would be like the library charges per page.

[fletcherfu24]

I got a huge box of hundreds of reports from the Government bookshop in Hamilton in the 1980's for the princely sum of $2 for the lot.The bookshop manager was glad to be shot of them...

[shamus]

Thanks Pool Guy, that rings a bell. I think I got a lot of mine from the Govt. Bookshop in Auckland.
Don't know if their still is a Govt. Bookshop, so probably best to try CAA.

[Dave Homewood]

Bennetts took over the Government Bookshop. I believe they are mainly based on university campus's now.

[Dave Homewood]

I have had an email from a kind lady at Puke Ariki that confirms that the 5th of June 1963 Cessna ZK-CCE crash was indeed the three men returning home from the Nelson reunion. Bingo. Thanks very much Peter for the tip on that, and eveyone else who has contributed.

The Cessna 172 had been purchased by the New Plymouth Aero Club the previous year for $4900 and had been converted into an air ambulance the previous October.

Frederick Arthur Horder Johnson was in his 39th year and funnily enough was known as Johnnie Johnson. He was an ex-No. 2 Squadron Warrant Officer Air Gunner who served two tours in the Pacific.

It was his property on Rama Road, Manaia, that they were circling to let his wife know they were back. He was the brother of Leonard Percival Johnson, the pilot of the Cessna who was also killed in the crash, and was in his 38th year. Leonard had been an LAC in the RNZAF serving as ground crew in Fiji and Guadalcanal.

An odd thing is the third chap that Pool Guy found, Glen Johnson, under the burials record was not onboard the aircraft. The third passenger killed was a Mr Rayford James Lawrence, aged 39. He'd been a Warrant Officer Air Gunner too, and had served three tours in the Pacific. I think the entry for a Glen Johnson is a red herring, either the name is a double up on Len, or that date has been entered wrongly.

Both Johnson brothers had been born and bred at the tiny village of Urenui in Taranaki, where their parents still lived at the time of their death. And Lawrence was also from Urenui, he owned the garage there at the time. Urenui a fantastic place that I have very fond memories of from a New Year's holiday over the 2007-2008 break. Wow, these three guys no doubt spent many happy times in the old Urenui Hall where my mates and I stayed on that holiday. I possibly met mates and descendants of these guys when I was there. The whole community turned out for New Years at the hall where we were staying. All three men had wives and kids when they died. Very sad.

But that is one of the two crash mysteries now solved and proves Charles had me on the right track after all. Thanks again all.

[Dave Homewood]

Right, we're 1 from 2.

As mentioned above the Cessna ZK-CCE was definately 100% the 1963 crash I was looking for, but now reading the report that Jane at the Golden Bay Museum has kindly sent through I'm 99% sure that the Tiger Moth that Peter pointed to is not the crash that involved a No. 2 Squadron reunion pilot.

The details of the Tiger Moth ZK-AOY crash are thus:
The pilot was Mr George A. Whiting, a controtor from Clifton, Takaka.
The passenger was Mr Norman Brake, a Uruwhenua farmer.

The Tiger Moth was formerly a Wellington Aero Club machine and was now owned by a group of Nelson enthusiasts.

It was visiting Hamama with other Nelson Aero Club aircraft on a "field day" as the paper put it, no doubt what we now call a "fly in".

Tiger Moth ZK-AOY was used to train Nelson Aero Club pilots according to the report. Mr Whiting had trained with Nelson Aero Club and held a passenger licence.

Apparently the aircraft was landing when it crashed 100 metres short of the strip, hitting gorse, bouncing and bursting into flames. Whiting jumped out and unstrapped Brake, pulling him free of the aircraft. Brake had burns to his legs and was dazed, and he was taken by ambulance to Nelson hospital where he was treated by Dr. E.C. Bydder.

So, this does not seem to be related. The impression I got was the pilot was an actual wartime pilot; it possibly crashed into the sea; it was a Nelson Aero Club aircraft and not a privately owned one like this; and the crash was fatal.

It may not necessarily have been in 1959, and may not necessarily have been into the sea but perhaps that comes form the name Tasman Bay where it has connotations of a sea crash.

Has anyone here got further ideas of where to look next? Would it be worth contacting Nelson Aero Club directly? Would they have a historian perhaps?

[Peter Lewis]

Culling through aircraft registered directly to the Nelson Aero Club and that were destroyed while under their ownership, I can list the following:

ZK-AKD DH82A Tiger Moth - Missing on flight from Takaka 16Nov46; cr into sea & wreck found at Whariwharangi Bay, near Seperation Point

ZK-AKG DH82A Tiger Moth - Cr into Nelson Harbour 2Nov47

ZK-AKQ Percival P.28 Proctor I - Spun off low-level turn & cr Hope, Nelson, 1Jun53. Pilot B J Parry

ZK-AUB Auster J-1 Autocrat - Cr Queen Charlotte Sound 30Dec52

ZK-BQT Piper PA18A Super Cub 95 - Wing hit tree, cr Okiwi Bay 5Sep63. Pilot John Haycock

ZK-BTO Piper PA18A Super Cub 95 - Cr into sea off Nelson Airport 30Jun71.

ZK-FPM Cessna T207A Stationair B - Undershot on landing Grand Chateau airstrip, Ruapehu, 24Sep95

None of those would seem fit the criteria given.

Possibility that the aircraft was listed under another owner and was on hire to the aero club? A search through Nelson-based owners reveals nothing likely.

A search of Nelson crashes adds:
ZK-BDT Auster J-1B Aiglet - owner Aerial Work (Marlborough) Ltd., Blenheim - Cr Mt Guppa, Nelson, 26Jan56 (but that would have been a topdressing crash surely?)

Nothing else pre-1980s I'm afraid.
That leaves me fresh out of ideas!

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Peter. This one:

"ZK-AKQ Percival P.28 Proctor I - Spun off low-level turn & cr Hope, Nelson, 1Jun53. Pilot B J Parry"

...is within the time frame of the first reunion in 1950 and the last alledgedly in 1963. I know there was a couple of people in the GR squadrons with that surname (one being Lloyd Hern Parry but it's not him, and there was also a G.H. Parry in No. 1 GR Sqn too). I'll do some digging and see if I come up with a match. In the meantime do you have any more info on the crash per chance?

[Dave Homewood]

In case your records don't have it Peter, the Auster ZK-AUB pilot seems to have been a D G A Roze according to the National Archives file title on the 1952 accident.

There are two accident reports for Aiglet ZK-BDT in the National Archives, the first being flown by L F Zampesi, 14/4/55, at Kaihoka (which is at Westhaven Inlet, the site of a wartime Hudson crash!!). The second pilot was AAS Hackston, 26/11/56. Neither name rings a bell from 2GR Squadron but it's interesting about the crash where the Hudson crashed.

[Dave Homewood]

Peter, just for the record, if you put ZK- and Nelson into the Archway search facility on the National Archives website it comes up with numerous accidents in the Nelson area.

ZK-CPC, Nelson Airport, D P O'Rourke, 16/6/1975

ZK-HIS, Nelson, P A Tait, 25/10/1975

ZK-CJG, Nelson Airport, J W Newman, ½/1976

ZK-GBW, Near Nelson, J L Crapper, 14/3/1976

ZK-AIU, Nelson, N Francis, 3/10/48

ZK-AKA, Nelson, A Moorhouse, 1/12/49

ZK-AYE, Nelson, L K Evans, 10/11/51

ZK-ATS, Nelson, Sinclair, 13/12/52

ZK-AKQ, Nelson, B J Perry, 1/6/53

ZK-BDT, Nelson, AAS Hackston, 26/11/56

ZK-ARX, (De Havilland, DH 82A Tiger Moth), Nelson, DAJ Walker, 4/3/59

ZK-GBW, (Schleicher, Rhonlerche II), Nelson, J Walwell, 1/9/62

ZK-BQT, (Piper, PA-18), Okiwi Bay, Nelson, John Haycock, 5/9/63

ZK-GAT, (Olympic), Nelson, D Guthrie, 26/9/64

ZK-GBU, (Schleicher, KA 6CR), Nelson, R L Sharland, 26/12/67

ZK-BTO, (Piper, PA-18), Near Nelson, A King, 30/6/71

ZK-BKY, (Piper, PA-18), Nelson Airport, G P Buteri, 8/2/72

ZK-GFJ, (Schempp-Hirth, SHK-1), Nelson Airport, G Jeffries, 11/2/73

ZK-CMS, (Cessna, 185A), Franz Josef, John A Nelson, 28/12/78

ZK-CPT, (Bristol, 170 MK 31), Nelson Airport, Joseph K Sue, 14/2/79

ZK-RAO, (Hollman, HA-2M Sportster), Palmerston North Airport, C Nelson, 15/12/79

Civil Air Accident Photographs and Transparencies
ZK-BTO, (Piper, PA-18), Near Nelson, A King, 30/6/71

ZK-HIS, Nelson, P A Tait, 25/10/75

ZK-RAO, (Hollman, HA-2M Sportster), Palmerston North Airport, C Nelson, 15/12/79

Registered files [record group]
ZK-HAY - 16/12/1969 D Simpson - MT Owen Nelson

[Peter Lewis]

I guess I was assuming that
- the accident was rather more serious than a propstrike or a buckled wingtip
- the accident was in a powered fixed wing rather than a glider or a rotorcraft
- the Nelson referred to the general location rather than the pilot's name e.g. ZK-CMS ZK-RAO

Anyway, ZK-AKQ

[Dave Homewood]

Sorry Peter, I just posted that because it seemed to have a few more pre-1980 accidents listed than your list and I thought you might be interested. I didn't think about ZK-H being helos but there is only one there (listed twice as it falls under two categories). From the info I found I have no idea of the nature of the accident, so yes they may be pretty minor.

[shorty]

I can confirm that ZK - BDT, a Auster J1-B Aiglet was a topdresser.
On the 26 November 1956 it was being flown by Alan Haxton for Air Work Marlborough when it disappeared on a flight from Blenheim to Nelson.
Various reports were received from farmers following a radio broadcast asking doe information and the RNZAF Woodbourne SAR team was out all during the night of the 26th following these reports. A report from a farmer seemed to give a valuable lead and on the morning of 28 November the team was in the Tinline Valley at first light carrying out a search of an area where the farmer reported having seen smoke the previous day.
During this earch the team was informed that the wreckage of the aircraft had been sighted in the bush south of the Wangamoa Saddle. The team quickly headed for the area by landrover and truck and, guided by a circling aero club aircraft, were at the scene of the crash approximately two hours after notification.

The pilot was alive although he had sustained serious injuries with a multiple fracture of his femur. Together with members of the Nelson Civil SAR Organisation and Foresty Service men from Rai Valley the Woodbourne team carried the injured man down to the road and transported to Nelson Hospital where he subsquently made a good recovery.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks to Michelle Sim at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand, I now have all the months and years of the reunions of that early period held by ex-wartime members of No. 2 Squadron. They are:

1st Reunion: June 1950
2nd Reunion: June 1953
3rd Reunion: June 1956
4th Reunion: June 1960
5th Reunion: 1st of June 1963

So we're looking for a Nelson crash around the period of one of those first four dates.

I guess one possibility here is the pilot hired the aircraft from another aeroclub to get to Nelson, then crashed whilst there, or en-route there or back.

[Dave Homewood]

Now that I've had time to look at these dates against the known Nelson area crashes I think Peter's pick of Proctor ZK-AKQ on the 1st of June 1953 is looking the closest match. However I cannot find anything which confirms if this accident was fatal or not, does anyone know?

And there's a descrepency between the name B.J. Parry that Peter lists and the National Archive which lists the pilot's name as B.J. Perry. Neither matches any No. 2 Squadron pilot name I have at the moment but it's still possible he was a squadron member as I don't yet have a full roll for 1941-45 for that squadron.

[angelsonefive]

About that picture of AOY's crash...
I very much doubt that this was the accident near Takaka which resulted in poor AOY being written off.
1. The passenger in that crash is reported to have suffered burns, yet I see no evidence of fire damage in that picture.
2. The crash was reported to be the result of undershooting the strip and coming to grief in gorse and rough ground.
There is no evidence in the pic. of that sort of environment. In fact, it looks like the crash was on an aerodrome.

AOY is on record as having no less than five previous accidents, all of them at Rongotai, between 22/9/50 and 22/5/53.

At the upper right of the picture there is discernible on the skyline, a structure which from its shape and surroundings looks like it could be the Wellington Harbour Board's signal station ( Beacon Hill ) on Strathmore Heights.

My conclusion therefore is that the accident shown in the picture was not at Takaka, but at Rongotai.

[fletcherfu24]

B.J. Perry.....Barry John Perry died 1953 aged 20 years old....source Births/Deaths register..too young?.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks for that, bother, yes he's too young to be the guy. Another one ruled out...

[fletcherfu24]

ZK-BQT Piper PA18A Super Cub 95 - Wing hit tree, cr Okiwi Bay 5Sep63. Pilot John Haycock

JOHN EUSTACE HAYCOCK...Date of Death 05-Sep-1963
Date of Interment 07-Sep-1963
Area In Cemetery RETURNED SERVICEMEN AREA
WAKAPUAKA Cemetery,Nelson.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks but unfortunately that cannot be the right chap either as the date is three months after the last reunion.

I looked up the Nelson cemetery register online and oddly he appears to have been buried in two cemeteries! His ashes appear to have been transferred from one to the other.
www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/asp/cemeteries/results.asp?LastName=Haycock&FirstNames=John&Year=1963