Date & Time:
Sep 20, 2003 at 1015 LT
Type of aircraft:
Fletcher FU-24
Operator:
Registration:
ZK-BDS
Flight Phase:
Flight
Flight Type:
Ferry
Survivors:
Yes
Site:
Mountains
Schedule:
Motu - Opotiki
MSN:
001
YOM:
1954
Country:
New Zealand
Region:
Oceania
Crew on board:
1
Crew fatalities:
0
Pax on board:
1
Pax fatalities:
0
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
0
Circumstances:
Crashed during bad weather. Andrew Wilde was flying and George Muir was a passenger. While enroute from Motu - Opotiki the gully became un-negotiable, so Andrew decided to return to Motu by flying a reciprocal course low level, depicted by arrows on his hand held marine GPS. During the return trip to Motahora up the Otara river valley, he found that the cloud base had lowered even further than when he entered the valley 6 minutes prior & he became fully reliant on that little GPS. The GPS became our enemy & lured Andrew into the cloud base, which ended our flight abruptly.
Testimony from George Muir, loader driver and passenger during this flight.
Testimony from George Muir, loader driver and passenger during this flight.
