This Site is dedicated to all those families of the people that have tragically disappeared on flights in and around New Zealand. I only hope that from all the effort in building this site and from all the effort of those taking part in this venture, that it will bear fruit in bringing ‘closure’ to their memories!
Gavin Grimmer
The Elevation Profile runs back to front to what is shown in the Google Earth image
above it. Position “X” is on the left of the profile, and position “Z” on the right.
The position shown on the Profile is automatically shown as a broad red arrow on
the GE image.
If Barstow was at 3000’ at this point ( or even 4000’) and still in cloud, he was
in real trouble!
You will probably now ask,”has there ever been a claimed sighting of a crashed Corsair
in this area,” and you’ll be stunned as I was that YES, there has! Haggard Creek!!!
In Chris Rudge’s most excellent book “MISSING”.... (The undisputed bible on missing
aircraft in New Zealand), he records:
In 1982, Mr Kevin Winterburn, the president of the Ferrymead Aeronautical Society
at the time, became interested in the missing Corsair after a chance meeting with
Peter Sheppard, the pilot of NZ5522. As a result of discussions about the flight,
Winterburn decided to carry out a search with the help of his son David, and Mr Myron
Hull. Through the society, Winterburn had heard a story where a deer culler had
“walked” on the wing of the missing aircraft, somewhere on the Haggard Creek side
of Mt Galileo. In 1982, the three men were flown into the Mt Galileo area, six miles
south of the Berlins Bluff, in a Hughes 500 helicopter. They spent a day on the tops
and searched around the bushline without success.
As this scenario is obviously the most likely and logical one, at this stage I will
say that it is the most promising, however, there still is yet another additional
possibility....
