New Zealand

Pilot Roger Poole was taking a TV news crew of three to film a burning 8.5m launch near Browns Island. After circling the launch and landing nearby, the floatplane took off and circled to the right at low level. It straighten out as if to return to base at Mechanics Bay, but then banked steeply to the right, the turn becoming near vertical. The nose dropped and it crashed into the sea, killing all four aboard.

During the takeoff roll at Paraparaumu Airport, the airplane deviated from the centerline to the right, causing the right main gear to be torn off while hitting the shoulder. The airplane went off runway and came to rest. Both pilots were unhurt while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The airplane departed Queenstown Airport at 1320LT for a local training flight. En route, while flying a lot height, the airplane struck a hillside located in the region of Lindis Pass. All three crew members were killed.

The crew was involved in a local test flight after the airplane has been rebuilt following another accident. After takeoff, the airplane went out of control and crashed by the runway. Both occupants were seriously injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

Crashed in unknown circumstances while completing a local top dressing mission. The pilot was injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

Shortly after takeoff from Tiraumea (47 km northeast of Masterton) on a local topdressing flight, the aircraft suffered an engine failure, stalled and crashed. The pilot was uninjured while the aircraft was written off.

Crashed in unknown circumstances while completing a topdressing mission. c/n TBC

The single engine airplane was engaged in an aerial topdressing operation on a farm near Taumarunui. On the 43rd sortie of the day the aircraft failed to return to the airstrip as expected and a search found the crashed and burning Fletcher about mid-way between the sowing area and the airstrip. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and the fire was largely confined to the engine bay and cockpit. The pilot Robert Neville Scott was dead. Evidence showed that the pilot had made a 90 degree turn back towards the airstrip and had commenced jettisoning the 20 hundredweight ( 2,240 pounds, 995 kg ) superphosphate hopper load. The aircraft collided with the terrain on a 15 degree rising grassy slope at a low forward speed and high rate of descent. About 15 hundredweight of the load was still in the hopper. Both fuel tanks had been ruptured in the crash and there was an absence of Avtur odour on the ground around the LH tank. The engine was producing high rotational energy at the time of impact. There was no evidence of mechanical failure prior to impact. An autopsy of the pilot produced no evidence that the fire had begun in the air.

The aircraft was engaged in an operation involving the aerial sowing of bulk fertiliser. The Lodestar had made a straight sowing run after which it was seen to cross a ridge. It turned slightly to starboard and followed the line of the ridge before entering a comparatively steep left-hand turn apparently initiated to bring it back toward a suitable position from which another sowing run could be started. When about two-thirds of the turn had been completed, the aircraft was seen to flick suddenly into a left-hand spin which continued very rapidly for one and a half to two and a half turns until the aircraft impacted on bush-clad terrain near the top of the ridge it had formerly crossed, exploded, disintegrated and burned.

Crashed in unknown circumstances while completing a spraying mission in Awarua, 10 km south of Invercargill. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot was injured.