Lost without trace until now - NZ5517

[baz62]

Mar 30, 2020 9:10:45 GMT 12 Mustang51 said:

why the seeming 'split' in the roundel surround? Different thicknesses but are there any panel line splits there. I am not all that familiar with Corsair structure...

If you look closely the yellow ring stops to meet up with the thin blue outline of the Bar. Looks like they followed the blue outline of the original Star and bar for the round part but as the yellow didn't include the bar part they stopped there.

[baronbeeza]

[axelford]

Sorry, What’s the picture of exactly?

[baronbeeza]

It is a pic of a logbook page concerning the Westport Corsairs. Can people here not see the pics ?

[baz62]

Apr 4, 2020 19:07:29 GMT 12 baronbeeza said:

It is a pic of a logbook page concerning the Westport Corsairs. Can people here not see the pics ?

Yes I can see this pic.

[Dave Homewood]

I can see it fine Kevin, thanks for posting.

[axelford]

Ah, I didn’t see the left page before, very interesting post.

[lwwakeman]

Hi any news on NZ5517
Has anything been found off it

[axelford]

Sadly looks like it continues to be a big no. The person who claimed they had information upped and left and there's no sudden headline news about "Lost WW2 RNZAF Plane Found" 

[Dave Homewood]

Here is an old article that may be of interest, from the The Press, 28 Sept 1961.

Air Mystery May Be Solved By Search Near Reefton

(New Zealand Press Association) GREYMOUTH, September 27.

A search which may solve one of New Zealand s air mysteries had to be cancelled today through adverse weather. Chief Inspector H. O. L. Hansen, officer-in-charge of the West Coast Police District, said tonight that Sergeant B. Kelly, of Reefton, and Mr E. Ensor, who is in charge of Forestry Service operations in the Inangahua district, had to terminate the search until the weather improves. This is not expected to be until about Friday. The two men were searching for what is thought could possibly be an aircraft wreckage.

Bushmen working in an isolated region west of the Inangahua river, near McMurray creek, in bush-covered hills about five miles west of Rotokohu, earlier this week had their attention attracted to an object which reflected light. The flash from the bush, which is up the eastern slopes of the Paparoa range, came from an area which is uninhabited and rarely visited because of its isolation, heavy timber, and steep slopes. Bushmen were unable to identify the object definitely as the wreckage of an aircraft, but their suspicions are being followed up by the police. Yesterday, Sergeant Kelly and Mr Ensor left to investigate.

Hampered By Fog and Rain
Their progress through the difficult terrain was hampered by fog and rain, and they were unable to reach the site of the find.

However, they were able to observe the material through field glasses, confirming that it was reflecting and unusual, but unable to be convinced that it was definitely the remains of an aircraft. The men returned to Reefton in the afternoon, but with others left this morning to make another attempt to locate the possible wreckage.

Police feel that it is possible there is a normal explanation for the reflections from the isolated region, but the theory that they are produced by the wreckage of a plane has not been discounted.

No aircraft has gone missing on the West Coast in recent years to lend support to the reports.

War-time Disappearances
However, a 17-year-old mystery could be solved if the object proves to be wreckage of an aircraft. A Corsair disappeared on a flight back to Westport in 1944. This aircraft was one of four on a cross-country flight prior to a group of pilots leaving for overseas. The section left Auckland for Westport, Harewood, and return to Auckland, and was led by Flying Officer R. Reynolds, of Westport.

On the flight from Auckland the Corsair, piloted by Pilot Officer C. Barstow, had radio trouble. The four aircraft circled over Westport and made for Christchurch, but at a height of 8000 feet in the vicinity of Inangahua Junction one aircraft developed engine trouble, and the flight decided to return to Westport.

At this time cloud enabled the merest visible contact with each aircraft. On the turn to change direction Pilot Officer B Barstow’s Corsair disappeared from the formation, and did not reply to repeated radio calls. The remaining aircraft returned to Westport.

Next day a search was made around Inangahua, and later an Air Rescue operation took over. No trace was seen of the aircraft, and, today, Flying Officer Reynolds said it had always been his contention that Pilot Officer Barstow’s Corsair went down near Inangahua.

In the war years at least two Harvard trainer fighter aircraft went missing from Woodbourne aerodrome, and they were never discovered. Flying Officer John McKenzie, a son of the late Sir John McKenzie, went missing from a training flight from a R.N.ZA.F. station, and the wreckage of his aircraft, which is thought to have crashed in the top part of the South Island, has never been recovered.

Another unsolved air mystery was the disappearance of Messrs Moncrief and Hood who were attempting to cross the Tasman from Australia. They are thought to have crashed in the north end of the South Island.

[Dave Homewood]

And this article follows up the one just above.

Object In Search Now Identified

The search for the strange glistening object seen by bush workers to the thickly-bushed Rotokohu area, north of Reefton, has ended. It has been almost certainly identified as a tinfoil radar reflector dropped from a meteorological balloon. When the object was first noticed last week, it was thought to be the wreckage of an aircraft. The reflecting object was noted to be half-way up a tree, said Chief Inspector H. O. Hansen, of the Greymouth police, yesterday. Although searchers could clearly see it from a few miles away, they were unable to find it when they reached its position, to spite of a thorough search of the ridge on which it had been seen. This was probably because they had no reflection to guide them from their positions under the trees.

"There is definitely nothing in the way of wreckage on the ridge, and no further search will be made,” said Inspector Hansen. A radar reflector is part of a radio transmitter which is sent up below a balloon from various weather stations to New Zealand. It is usually about 3ft across the base. The reflector to question is thought to be from a balloon sent up from the Christchurch airport to aid weather calculations.