A Tasman man is planning his own search for a missing West Coast aircraft, which he believes could be in the wider Wanaka area.
West Coast police search and rescue conducted a reconnaissance mission last week into the flanks of the Southern Alps, south of Franz Josef Glacier, for the De Havilland Dragonfly ZK-AFB, which went missing on February 12, 1962, on a scenic flight from Christchurch to Milford Sound, with four passengers and pilot Brian Chadwick. The plane was never found.
A new police-lead search is planned for later this year.
Late last year, a seat harness from an early aircraft was washed up and found in a South Westland riverbed during the whitebait season.
Lew Bone, from Mapua, said a new search, south of Franz Josef, was well worth pursuing.
In 1962, search authorities were overwhelmed by the volume of reported hearings and sightings on both sides of the Main Divide, he said.
There was understandably much concentration on the West Coast as that was pilot Brian Chadwick's preferred scenic route. His secondary route to Milford, if he was unable to get over the divide due to weather, was via Canterbury and Otago.
On the day, seeing the state of mountain weather, Mr Chadwick said he would have to go south via Canterbury, Mr Bone said. Searchers came to believe that Mr Chadwick would not have got over the divide.
Mr Bone has been researching the disappearance for many years, in collaboration with the Rev Dr Richard Waugh, of Auckland, who, in 2005, published an authoritative account of the incident.
"I now have new evidence, within reasonable bounds of probability, that the aircraft never got across the divide and was instead forced to stay on the Canterbury side."
However, Mr Bone said the harness find was nonetheless well deserving of an organised search.
"I am meanwhile endeavouring to put together a professional search of these slopes this coming summer. The terrain, which I'm very familiar with, is not a place for amateurs to be scrambling around in. It needs pre-search planning by helicopter or drone, and of course Department of Conservation approvals and experienced people."
