Gavin Grimmer
This NZAM 1984 Aerial Photo (overlaid on Google Earth) shows the track that Jenny Barratt saw the plane fly that day
Consequently the first stretch of the north eastern side of the Moeraki River, would be as good a place as any to start searching, but that will have to wait for my next trip down .....unless someone else wants to have a look?
If you do, all I ask is that you carry a good GPS and record the areas searched, and then send me a copy of the GPS file so that we can ensure the same areas don’t get needlessly searched again.
Update 21st March 2014
I have been a bit slack updating progress on this aircraft as 2013 was a very busy time for me with other commitments.
In Feb 2013, we carried out (what probably is the first ever) ground search for ZK-EBU in conjunction with LandSAR in this area, and I found it very interesting observing their methods. Their method of searching was much more thorough than ours, but did not cover as much ground as we do. In saying this, their method was better as the area covered was methodical to the point that you could say that their search area had been virtually completely covered, whereas with our method there was a higher chance that we have walked right past it without seeing it. It’s more about numbers of searchers, even spacing between searchers, and keeping a good grid search.pattern.
Julian Tovey and his team of searchers started the search on the Saturday as many in his team were not able to be there on the Sunday - the day we planned to start. They had managed to track down the woman that the young girl had come crying to, and her memory of that event was in the area just south of the Whakapohai River. They searched some of that area on the Saturday. Blair Hoult, one of the local residents, was very gracious in letting us use his house as a base and a place to stay. Blair was also involved with LandSAR.
Unfortunately, due to the time it has taken me to do this update, I seem to have lost some of the GPS tracks from some of the searchers, so I am unable to show all the ground covered (Sunday and Monday) but at least you will be able to get the general idea. If I ever do locate them, I’ll update this article.
ZK-EBU Pg 13
At the point when Ned had flown past the Barratt’s house and realising that the weather was really closing in, he would have had to make a snap decision. If he continued, it would have most likely ended in an uncontrolled crash in cloud into the bush with very little chance of survival, or if he immediately carried out a “rough terrain forced landing”, then they all had a chance. By the time he had weighed this up in his mind, he would have been fairly well down towards Pluto’s house, and hence why I believe there is a good chance this is where they will be found.
