Gavin Grimmer
I tried to contact this Maurice Brown at the time to no avail.
By memory, the address no longer existed as it is now an empty section - and the telephone number had long been disconnected.
With the help of friends, it appears the “Maurice Brown” was actually incorrectly
spelt and it is “Morris Brown” and he was apparently an Aircraft Engineer for Air
New Zealand at the time (2006).
If anyone knows this Morris Brown, please get him
to contact me so that we can clear this matter up – and hopefully find ZK-AFB – 60
years overdue!
If Morris Brown, anyone in that Hunting Party, or anyone else for that matter, does happen to know the final resting place of Dragonfly ZK-AFB and is keeping it to themselves, I would like to make it known that it is actually a criminal offence to not notify the Authorities. Believe me, I know... Early in my initial years of searching for ZK-AFB, someone got the notion that I had actually found her and notified the Police.
The first I knew of it was a telephone call from very Senior Policeman threatening
to arrest me if I didn’t let them know where it was! Of course I would have loved
to obliged!
So... if I am correct, I currently think Brian Chadwick and his passengers
may have ended up somewhere in these valleys south of Wanaka within the green out
line:
An ADF only gives a direction of a destination to keep the nose pointed towards, and if there is any crosswind component the aircraft will fly what is known as a parabolic curve as a result of being blown off course. As the forecast wind was 080/15kts (basically an easterly of 15 knots) and this course directly to Dunedin is SE, they would have been blown off course to the south, so the most likely area would be the southern valley in this green area.
Whether the Dragonfly ended up in one of these valleys and was unable to turn around due to not enough room to maneuver and so Chadwick stalled it into the trees as per what Morris Brown inferred (as they presumed the occupants had walked out - meaning the crash was survivable), or ZK-AFB continued flying down Motatapu Valley towards Queenstown is debatable, but Morris Brown’s account certainly now sounds feasible.
Someone may well have already stumbled over the wreckage and just discounted it as a known wreck, or if anyone reading this is into hunting in that area, then please spend the time in these valleys... you never know what you might just discover!.... (Editors note: Morris Brown was eventually tracked down in Western Australia since this Report and he claimed he only overheard a conversation of a couple of hunters at a party - so more than likely just a lot of nonsense drunken talk that has been added to over the years to make it sound more credible - “Chinese whispers”…. )
Area roughly outlined in red
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