|
Post by fletcherfu24 on May 29, 2009 17:42:25 GMT 12
3 months is a pretty good margin of error for 45 years ago.I was 2 months out today trying to remember a job we were at last year. If nothing else Nelson Harbour seems to be hazard to aviators.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on May 29, 2009 22:31:17 GMT 12
I was talking to Mum this afternoon about this mystery and I mentioned to her the Proctor ZK-AKQ case where everything seemed to fit except the age of the chap who was killed, at only 20. She suggested something brilliant - perhaps the guy killed was not the RNZAF reunion guy, but they were in the plane together, and it was the aero club pilot who died in the tragedy and not the older guy, who perhaps escaped. Does this sound plausible? Is there an easy way to find out if there was another passenger/pilot aboard who escaped? I think the Proctor holds 3 or 4 people doesn't it?
|
|
|
Post by angelsonefive on May 30, 2009 9:01:33 GMT 12
It just goes to show..
A bloke should always listen to his Mum.
The beautiful Percival Proctor was/is a four-seater, so there could well have been others involved in the tragedy.
The summaries in the NZ archives website only seem to give the the name of the pilot and make no reference at all to any others.
|
|
|
Post by fletcherfu24 on May 30, 2009 9:24:49 GMT 12
3 other young men appeared to have died on 1/6/1953 at Nelson,any connection or just co incidence?,The first one is in the RSA cemetery.
ERNEST JOHN TUCKER 29 YEARS Date of Death 01-Jun-1953 RSA
DONALD ARTHUR HALL 24 YEARS Date of Death 01-Jun-1953
JAMES HENRY CROMIE 23 YEARS Date of Death 01-Jun-1953
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on May 30, 2009 16:54:01 GMT 12
Thanks for those details. More investigation is needed but that Ernest Tucker is a possibility, he'd have been 18 years old in 1942, so possibly served with No. 2 Squadron.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 8, 2009 12:05:13 GMT 12
I have just received a newspaper cutting from the nice people at Nelson Provincial Museum about the Proctor ZK-AKQ crash.
Indeed four people aboard were killed and the passengers were the other three that you list two posts above Pool Guy.
The crash occurred in a paddock owned by Mr Trecaey W. Smith at Ranzau, and all four men were members of the Nelson Aero Club. They are listed as: Barry John Perry, aged 21 , single, the pilot of the aircraft and son of Mr and Mrs F. Perry, of Crscent Street, Richmond. he had been residing with an aunt in Iwa Road, Nelson.
James Henry Cromie, aged 23, single, son of Mr and Mrs A.J. Cromie of 5 Oxford Street, Richmond.
Ernest James Tucker, aged 29, a married man with one child, of Roto Street, Tahunanui.
Donald Hall, aged 24, single, son of Mrs C.G. Hall, 59 Brook Street, Nelson
It must have been crushing for the Aero Club to lose four young members in one crash like that, not to mention their families of course.
They took off from Tahunanui and about 2.55pm and the accident happened about ten minutes later when they were only six miles form the airfield. A witness saw the aeroplane full into a left hand bank, lift and then go into a spin from which it didn't recover.
Apparently both Perry and Tucker held PPL's wheras the other two were student pilots. There's more eyewitness details in the article form various people but I won't bore you with it here, unless someone's interested.
So where does this get me with my original enquiy, well I certainly think that Ernest James Perry, an ex-serviceman with a pilot's licence, fits the bill for being an ex-No. 2 Squadron member. It's quite possible. I know he was not on the squadron for their last tour in 1945 as i have a full list of personnel for that tour, but I don't have full listings from the previous period of the squadron's existence from 1941-mid-1945 yet, so he may well have served with them.
I might try the Nelson RSA and see if they have any record of him.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 16, 2009 20:33:08 GMT 12
Mystery solved.
I have now found positive proof that Mr Ernest James Tucker of Tahunanui, Nelson killed in this aircraft crash detailed above was indeed an ex-member of No. 2 GR Squadron, thanks to a newspaper cutting from June 1953 about the reunion that Don Simms kindly found for me.
So now both mystery crashes that I began with are solved. Thanks very much everyone.
|
|
|
Post by thomarse on Oct 27, 2009 21:41:56 GMT 12
Just found this post.
I can confirm that the Manaia accident to CCE on 5 June 1963 involving the deaths of two brothers L P and F A Johnson and a Mr R J Lawrence was on their return flight from a No.2 Squadron reunion in Nelson - it's specifically mentioned in the Accident Report.
Now, I'll have a stab and guess that the other accident referred to is that involving the Nelson Aero Club's PA18 BQT at Okiwi Bay on 5 September 1963. That aircraft crashed into the sea while being flown by an ex-RNZAF wartime pilot, one J E Haycock.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 27, 2009 22:29:47 GMT 12
Both air crashes are solved already Thomarse, The reunions were all held in June of the years held.
|
|
|
Post by thomarse on Oct 28, 2009 11:11:20 GMT 12
Ignore me Dave, I had only opened the thread to about the end of the second page.
However, if you allow for jaded memories a little, the BQT accident fits the original description better - "borrowed" the aeroplane and "crashed into the harbour", neither of which Mr Tucker did in point of fact. My Haycock also fits the age bracket, but we don't know what his wartime service affiliation was.
Has anyone hypothesised that the 2 1963 accidents may have spelt the end of the reunions? Guys of the age of only 40 don't usually let something like that go lightly.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 28, 2009 19:40:59 GMT 12
No problem Thomarse, all iput is welcome. I will check when I get some time to see if Haycock appears on any of the squadron lists I have.
The reunions did stop after 1963 and didn't re-occur till the squadron reformed in the 1980's.
|
|
|
Post by tigerchild on May 10, 2011 22:17:04 GMT 12
I'll see what comes from that article which the Golden Bay Museum is sending but I too suspect maybe the accident was 1960 rather than 1959 now. Note that the crash wasn't necessarily a Tiger Moth (unless that's all the Nelson Aero Club had at the time?) I checked out that TAIC site but sadly their online reports only go back to 1988. Fingers crossed that Puke Ariki get back to me regarding the 1963 crash.
|
|
|
Post by tigerchild on May 10, 2011 22:36:39 GMT 12
Tiger Moth ZK-AOY was owned by my father Phil Black.I think it was probably registered in his companys name Valet Service Ltd, trading as Valet Drycleaners, 218 Trafalgar Street, Nelson. The plane crashed south of Takaka 1-3-59. I was there at what we knew as an "aeroclub picnic".I was 6 years old at the time and having lunch with my parents when dad was asked "can I borrow your tiger. Dad's answer was "yes,go for your life". When the Tigermoth was on approach to land (from the Takaka end of the field) the port wing brushed a pine tree in the paddock before the landing strip and then crashed to the ground, bursting into flames immediately. We all ran to the scene and I recall seeing one of the occupants being pulled from the plane. This man's trousers had a high nylon content and had melted onto his legs. I remember someone trying to rip the trousers so they could be removed, but to no avail. I didn't know the people who were in the plane, but they both survived. Dad's next plane was Tigermoth ZK-BRM which he bought in partnership with Ken Wells. He sold his share in this plane to Ken Wells about 1968.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on May 10, 2011 23:06:25 GMT 12
Thanks for this information Tigerchild.
|
|
|
Post by thomarse on May 11, 2011 18:54:27 GMT 12
The pilot is listed as G A Whiting.
It would appear that the accident photo on Page 1 of this thread is a different prang of AOY's.
|
|
|
Post by tigerchild on May 14, 2011 23:05:28 GMT 12
Yes, the photo of ZK-AOY on page one must have been an earlier accident before my father owned it. The Tiger was completely consumed by fire in the Takaka accident.
|
|