This Site is dedicated to all those families of the people that have tragically disappeared on flights in and around New Zealand. I only hope that from all the effort in building this site and from all the effort of those taking part in this venture, that it will bear fruit in bringing ‘closure’ to their memories!
Gavin Grimmer
Hunua Township - 1730 - Travelling: SW to Ardmore - Low wing aircraft - S/W over
Hunua - Mr McClure? - Phone 2924-804 Hunua Township
As you can see, there is a possibility that this plane observed could have been the
same plane that was seen in a steep dive from Pinnacle Hill, and in that steep dive,
it simply leveled out and carried on. The distance between the Pinnacle Hill sighting
and this one would have only taken a PA38 Tomahawk only 2 1/2 minutes to cover, although
as shown previously, you cannot take the times as totally accurate. You can now see
how there is a great need for these reports to be much more thorough. There is just
not enough information supplied to be able to determine exactly what the observer
saw! As the file on ZK-WAC is a little over 200 pages, it does take quite a bit
of time checking each detail out to answer each question that arises as I work my
way through. It is interesting that according to the file, the Pinnacle Hill sighting
area as determined above, was never searched which leans even more weight that it
needs to be. I’m told that hunters do go into that area, but that doesn’t mean that
it has been searched thoroughly. It is interesting to note that Piper Cherokee ZK-DIT
disappeared 26 Feb 1984 in the Hunua Ranges and was not found until three months
later 26 May 1984... not by searchers, but by pig hunters who just happened to stumble
upon it. It was found nose down in amongst the trees making it impossible to see
from the air. Had this aircraft not been stumbled upon, it may well have been another
one listed on this site.
As you can see, the purple coloured outline shows the area that was officially searched
and the Pinnacle Hill area is outside this. The Aircraft Accident Report did however
say that the area searched included the southern most extremes of the Hunuas across
to State Highway One. It is possible that the aircraft direction shown in the red
arrow was the same aircraft seen in the Pinnacle Hill area, but it is also possible
that it was yet another aircraft.
