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
Update 2nd July 2012
Gary Soden and a friend tried using a Flight Simulator in “Tiger Moth mode”, to fly
down the Mohaka River over the section between the Te Hoe River and Willowflat bridge.
The purpose for this was we had heard that there was Maori folklore saying that there
was an aeroplane wreck somewhere on the eastern bank of the river somewhere between
these two positions. When flying down there at low level, they found a real tight
left hand corner of the river that they lost control and crashed into the bank. This
seemed an obvious place to search.
After obtaining a permit and a key to gain access into the forestry roads that lead
up to that spot, we set off on Saturday 30th June, 2012, to do a ground search. We
had 1949 aerial photos of this area that showed what bush was there at that time
and it was virtually the same as the present day remaining bush. The Forestry had
bought what was open farmland in the period of time John Tacon disappeared, had planted
it out in Pine trees and had recently harvested them, leaving what was bush in 1947/49
untouched. This was obviously because it was on such steep ground.
On arriving at the scene, it was hard to believe it was the spot that we had viewed
on Google Earth as it was so steep! However, Gary and I devised a plan of descending
from the top, zig-zagging our way to the bottom.
We found it was not too difficult as there were plenty of trees to hang onto as we
worked or way down. It was reasonably open bush, so we were able to see a good 20
to 30 feet either side of our tracks. There were also plenty of pig tracks made by
the wild pigs that were a plenty in the area. At one stage Gary became quite excited
as he thought he had found some old black tyres (Tiger Moth tyres?), but when he
got closer he found it was only the carcase of a dead black pig! When we got to the
bottom, we then worked our way south along the river bank, but didn’t find anything
of interest. Another area eliminated!
