Aircraft Accident: Lockheed Lodestar ZK-AFE Kereru
When: 18 March, 1949
Where: Waikanae, North Island
What happened
- On 18 March, 1949, ZK-AKX Kereru left Whenuapai Airport, Auckland on a flight to Christchurch and then Dunedin, with the first stop in Paraparaumu. Conditions were windy, with low cloud and mist.
- At 9:37 am the pilot was given landing instructions by the Paraparaumu aircraft controller.
- Another aeroplane saw the Lodestar flying down near the mouth of the Otaki River.
- At 10:00 am an emergency was declared by the Paraparaumu aircraft control tower after they received no answers to their calls.
- RNZAF aircraft began searching the area and found smoking wreckage from the missing plane on the ridge behind Waikanae, 3 miles away from the town.
- A rescue party tried to get to the site of the plane crash but were unable to make their way through the heavy bush in the wet and cold conditions until the next morning.
- Fire had destroyed almost all of the plane wreckage, but all those on board would have been killed when the plane flew into the side of the ridge.
How many died: 15 (13 passengers and 2 crew)
Other events and outcomes
- A commission of enquiry found that there was no evidence of mechanical failure and that the crash was the result of a navigation mistake.
Sources
- King, John. Aviation: accidents and disasters, Wellington, 1995.