Northland Regional Council

On Friday 31 March 2006 the pilot intended to carry out topdressing on properties near a steep hill range nine kilometres to the south-west of Kaitaia. The day’s activities commenced at approximately 0600 hours when the pilot and loaderdriver met at Kaitaia aerodrome. The pilot and loader-driver flew in the aircraft from the aerodrome to a farm airstrip located on the back of a hill range near the Pukepoto Quarry where the fertiliser-loading truck had been parked overnight. The topdressing operation began in the morning with spreading approximately 25 tonnes of superphosphate on nearby farmland which was stored in the fertiliser bins next to the airstrip. As the last of the superphosphate was being spread, a consignment of fresh lime was delivered by a trucking contractor. The topdressing operation continued with the spreading of the lime on another property near the base of the hill range, about three kilometres from the airstrip. At around 1000 hours, while waiting on another delivery of lime by the trucking contractor, the pilot and loader-driver flew in the aircraft to another airstrip about 20 km to the south-east near Broadwood. They repositioned a fertiliser-loading truck located at this airstrip to another airstrip near Pawarenga, in anticipation of the next day’s topdressing. The pilot and loader-driver then flew back to the original farm airstrip near the Pukepoto Quarry, arriving at approximately 1100 hours. At about this time the pilot received a cell phone call from his supervising Chief Pilot. During the conversation he asked the Chief Pilot for his advice about the best direction for spreading lime on the land that he was currently working on. The pilot also commented about how the lime was ‘hanging up’ and not flowing easily from the aircraft’s hopper. The Chief Pilot cautioned the pilot about the poor flow properties of new lime and advised him to spread the lime in line with the hill range, not up the slope. The topdressing operation then resumed until all the lime in the fertiliser bin had been used. The pilot and loader-driver then stopped for lunch during which time the aircraft was refuelled and another truckload of lime was delivered. The pilot had commented to the loader-driver during lunch that the lime was still hanging up in the aircraft’s hopper. He was finding that he needed to complete about two passes to clear the entire load from the hopper. Just before starting the afternoon’s topdressing flights, the pilot had a conversation on his cell phone with a bank manager in Auckland. The conversation concerned the financial position of his topdressing business. The loader-driver reported that the pilot became very agitated during the conversation, but appeared to calm down prior to beginning the afternoon’s flying. The farm-owner observed the aircraft on its first flight of the afternoon as it completed the first two passes. He was aware that the aircraft had flown further away after these two passes and assumed the aircraft was returning to the airstrip for a second load of lime. He did not notice anything abnormal about the aircraft. Other witnesses reported that the aircraft flew parallel with a plantation of 30-40 metre high trees towards the rising hill range. The closest eye witness reported seeing what appeared to be fertiliser dropping from the aircraft as it flew along the tree line up the slope. The dropping of the fertiliser then stopped at which point the aircraft was seen entering a steep right hand turn away from the slope whilst descending towards the ground. The aircraft disappeared in to tall bush on the hillside and witnesses heard the aircraft impact the ground. A large smoke-like cloud was then seen rising up through the bush. On hearing the impact, the farm-owner and a local share-milker from a nearby farm searched the hillside for the aircraft. The aircraft was obscured by the tall bush and was initially difficult to locate. The share-milker made his way down the hillside through the bush to the aircraft. He quickly realised that the pilot was deceased. The farmer-owner went to alert the emergency services, however another property owner who had heard the aircraft strike the ground and seen the smoke had already telephoned the New Zealand Police. The accident occurred in daylight, at approximately 1345 hours NZDT, 9 km south-west of Kaitaia at an elevation of 880 feet AMSL. Latitude: S 35° 10' 26.1", longitude: E 173° 11' 29.4"; grid reference: NZMS 260 N05 283698.

On 21 November 2005, the day before the accident, the pilot had completed a day of aerial topdressing in ZK-DZG, a New Zealand Aerospace Industries Fletcher FU24-950, then flown the aircraft with his loader-driver as a passenger to Whangarei Aerodrome. That evening the pilot contacted his operator’s (the company’s) chief engineer in Hamilton and said that the airspeed indicator in ZK-DZG was stuck on 80 knots. The chief engineer told him the pitot-static line for the indicator was probably blocked and to have a local aircraft engineer blow out the line. Early the next morning, the day of the accident, the pilot flew ZK-DZG with his loader-driver on board to an airstrip 50 km north-west of Whangarei to spread fertiliser on a farm property. As the morning progressed, the weather conditions became unsuitable for aerial topdressing. At about 1020, the pilot used his mobile telephone to talk to another company pilot at Kerikeri, and told him that the wind was too strong for further work. The conversation included general work-related issues and ended about 1045, with the pilot saying that he was shortly going to return to Whangarei and go to his motel. Before leaving for Whangarei, the pilot spoke with a truck driver who had delivered fertiliser to the airstrip about 1100. The driver commented later that the pilot said the wind had picked up enough to preclude further topdressing. After they had covered the fertiliser, the pilot told the driver that he and the loader-driver would fly to Whangarei. The driver did not recall anything untoward, except that the pilot had casually mentioned there was some electrical fault causing an amber light in the cockpit to flicker and that it would only be a problem if a second light came on. He said the pilot did not appear to be concerned about the light. The driver then left and did not see the aircraft depart. The pilot used his mobile telephone to tell an aircraft engineer at Whangarei Aerodrome about the airspeed indicator problem and asked him if he could have a look at it and blow out the pitot-static system. The engineer believed the call was made from the ground at about 1130, but he could not be certain of the time. The engineer agreed to rectify the problem and the pilot said he would arrive at the Aerodrome about noon. The engineer said he did not know that the pilot had spent the previous night in Whangarei or that the aircraft had been parked at the Aerodrome overnight. ZK-DZG was equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) and its navigation data was downloaded for analysis. From the data it was established that the aircraft departed from the airstrip at 1131 and flew for about 39 km on a track slightly right of the direct track to Whangarei Aerodrome, before altering heading direct to the aerodrome and Pukenui Forest located 5 km west of Whangarei city. A witness who had some aeroplane pilot flying experience, and was on a property close to the track of ZK-DZG, said he saw the aircraft fly past shortly after about 1130 at an estimated height of 500 feet. He watched it fly in the direction of Pukenui Forest for about 40 seconds before turning his head away. A short time later he turned again to look at the aircraft, which by then was just above the horizon about 2 ridges away. He said there was a strong, constant wind blowing from the right (south) of the aircraft, which appeared to be drifting sideways and rocking its wings. He then saw the aircraft enter a steep descending turn that seemed to tighten before it disappeared from view. He estimated it to have turned about 270 degrees. Another witness near the aircraft track and accident site reported seeing the aircraft at about 1140 flying just above the tree line and thought it might have been “dusting” the forest. The aircraft then turned and disappeared behind some trees. Other witnesses who heard or saw the aircraft described the weather as squally throughout the morning with strong winds from the south, and said that near the time of the accident there was no rain. The witnesses noticed nothing untoward with the aircraft itself, and at the time none was concerned that the aircraft may have been involved in an accident. The local aircraft engineer said he was not concerned when ZK-DZG did not arrive at Whangarei, because from his experience it was not unusual for agricultural pilots to change their plans at the last minute and to not inform the engineers. He described his conversation with the pilot as being casual and said the pilot did not mention that he was finishing topdressing for the day because of the weather. He thought the pilot was just trying to fit in the maintenance work and that his plans had changed. The pilot had not asked him to provide any search and rescue watch, nor did the engineer expect him to because he could not recall any pilot having asked him to do so. There was no evidence that the pilot made any radio calls during the flight. The frequency to which the radio was selected and its serviceability could not be determined because of the accident damage. At about 2200 a member of the pilot’s family contacted the emergency services when she became concerned that there had been no contact from the pilot. An extensive aerial search began at first light the next morning, and at about 1120 the wreckage of ZK-DZG was located about 50 metres (m) below a ridge in a heavily wooded area of Pukenui Forest, at an elevation of 920 feet above sea level. Both occupants were fatally injured.

On the morning of Sunday 23 December 2001, the pilot was engaged in spreading superphosphate on a property near Otonga. When this job was completed the operation moved to a property to the east of Whangarei where urea was sown on a maize crop. This job finished at about 1130 hours when the pilot and loader driver decided to have a cup of tea and determine which job they would do next. There were two options available; it was found that the wind was unsuitable for operations from one airstrip, so it was decided to complete the job at Paiaka, which involved spreading some 112 tonnes of lime. This particular job was to have commenced on 13 December 2001 but was delayed because of wind. The loader driver arrived at Paiaka at about 1300 hours to find that the pilot had already landed and was removing the cover from the fertiliser bin that held the lime. The loader driver noticed that water had come under the edges of the cover making the lime damp around the walls of the bin. The truck driver who had delivered lime earlier in the week had also noted the presence of moisture in the lime around the edges of the bin. The work commenced at about 1320 hours and the loader driver expected the pilot to stop for fuel between 1445 and 1500 hours. After approximately 13 loads the loader driver was using the lime that had been affected by moisture. As a result he took bucket loads from the sides of the bin and mixed it with the lime in the middle of the bin in an effort to make the lime flow more freely. At approximately 1425 the pilot gave the signal to the loader driver for a refuel on the next landing. As this was earlier than the expected refuel time the loader driver assumed this was also to check if any lime was building up around the bottom of the hopper. During the 10 weeks that they had been operating the aircraft they had to clean fertiliser away from the hopper door area. This had happened several times, especially if the fertiliser was damp, and on one occasion they had to clean out part of a previous fertiliser load that had “hung up” inside the hopper. As the loader driver was preparing for the refuel he could hear the aeroplane operating under what sounded like full power, and saw the pilot manoeuvre the aircraft in an apparent attempt to dislodge the load. He saw a small “puff” of lime discharge from the aircraft as it was “bunted”. The aircraft then disappeared behind intervening terrain into a valley, some 1,500 metres from the sowing area. The loader driver did not see the aeroplane again, but heard a muffled explosion and saw smoke on the skyline. He then phoned for emergency assistance. The accident occurred in daylight, at approximately 1430 hours NZDT, at Paiaka, at an elevation of 720 feet. Grid reference 260-Q06-142267, latitude S 35° 33 2', longitude E 174° 08.3'.

The aircraft was flown to a farm airstrip then loaded with a small load of agricultural product. A combination of extremely soft airstrip conditions, a quartering tailwind, and underslung spreader equipment, degraded performance to the extent that the aircraft was unable to become airborne within the available length of the strip. The load was jettisoned, but the aircraft struck a fence and scraped the ground with the left wing tip and aileron. The aircraft did become airborne, but was unable to be effectively controlled and subsequently struck the ground. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot was seriously injured.

The pilot, sole on board, was engaged in a spraying mission in Kaikohe. The first sowing operation was completed shortly after 0700LT. While flying at low height in good weather conditions, the aircraft banked left to an angle of 45° then nosed down to 30° and crashed 500 metres from the Kaikohe Aerodrome. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot was killed.

The single engine airplane departed Kaitaia at 1134LT being ferried to Whangarei. En route, the pilot made a low pass over his parent's house located in the Mataraua Valley then completed a 360° probably to gain height when the airplane crashed in the bush about 8 miles southwest of Kaikohe. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot, sole on board, was killed.

Crashed in unknown circumstances in the Kaikou River Valley, in the region of Pipiwai. The pilot, sole on board, was injured.

The aircraft collided with a fenceline along the top of a minor ridge, with the port tail being badly damaged by a concrete post. A little further on, and at a lower level, the port wingtip struck the ground causing the plane to make a heavy impact in a totally inverted position. The airplane then slid about 100 feet (30 metres ) before coming to rest. A small fire stated but quickly burned itself out. The pilot was killed.

Crashed in unknown circumstances in Mangawhai while engaged in a spraying mission. The pilot survived while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Crashed in unknown circumstances while conducting a spraying mission. The pilot was injured and the aircraft was destroyed.