Plane wreckage to be kept intact

BY TANYA KATTERNS

The families of two airforce pilots buried near their crashed plane on a windy hilltop in the Tararua Range have won their battle to have parts of the wreckage returned to the site.

Last month, Wairarapa Helicopters and the New Zealand Sport and Vintage Aviation Society illegally removed the engine from the wreck of the RNZAF Devon plane that crashed 54 years ago.

The Conservation Department immediately suspended the helicopter company's concessions to operate in department land until it was decided whether charges would be laid.

Though the parts were intended to be used as a display at the Sport and Vintage Aviation Society's museum at Masterton's Hood Aerodrome, the families of the dead pilots would not agree to the plan.

The company had now agreed to return the engine to the wreck site by the end of the month, and plans to revoke Wairarapa Helicopters' operating permit had been withdrawn, Conservation Department area manager Chris Lester said.

The department had also decided against pursuing any prosecution.

The Devon was on a training flight from Ohakea when it crashed on Shingle Slip Knob, near Mt Holdsworth, on February 17, 1955.

Flight lieutenants Edward Casey, 38, and William Trott, 31, married men with three children each, were buried 100 metres from the site on a hilltop after their bodies were discovered three days later.

Mr Lester said the decision on the future of the plane's parts was always going to be left to the families.

"There was pretty strong feeling that what is left of the plane wreckage remains intact on the hill."

The engine is expected to be returned after the deer-mating season finishes on April 25 and Tararua Forest Park is reopened to commercial helicopter operators.

- © Fairfax NZ News